


Eyes Can't Lie

by BackslashEcho



Category: Kingdom Hearts, RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Fish out of Water, Gen, Multi, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Volume 2 (RWBY), Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-03-25 23:43:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3829288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BackslashEcho/pseuds/BackslashEcho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team RWBY have been having these strange dreams lately, about five people who become three, and one of whom they feel drawn to. After gaining his Mark Of Mastery, Riku stumbles out of a Corridor of Darkness onto the world of Remnant. Too weak to leave by the same method, he's going to be stuck here a while.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N** : Still not fond of having to put notes at the tops of stories, so I’ll keep this brief. This takes place after RWBY Volume 1, and after Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. As you should be expecting if you’re familiar with my crossovers, don’t expect me to stick to the stations of RWBY’s canon.
> 
> Officially posted 02 May 2015.

Ruby Rose fell through darkness. 

There hardly seemed a difference between having her eyes open or closed, but she thought they were open. Was she upright? Sinking underwater? Flying through space? There was only the inky blackness all around. 

Then, tiny pinprick of light glimmered before her. Below? Above? Ahead? She couldn’t tell, but miniscule as the light was, it pushed back the dark surrounding it, and Ruby found that she was not alone. Her team was here with her, flying or falling too, all with their eyes closed.

_**The time has come and yet you stand alone** _

Quite suddenly, Ruby was standing on a beach, on an island she had never seen before. She was alone, and not. Glancing down, Ruby thought that she was her whole team. She saw her own hands, and Weiss’, and Blake’s, and Yang’s. She was RWBY; they were Ruby.

Now five people stood before her.

To her left, a boy with wild, spiky brown hair, and a boy with upright, spiky blond hair. They had nearly the same face, like twins, with eyes blue like the summer sky. To her right, a girl with short red hair, and a girl with long blonde hair. They, too, had near-identical faces, and blue eyes like the sea. 

Directly in front of her, facing away, was a boy with fine, silver hair that reached past his shoulders.

_**The enemy is mighty and too strong** _

The blonde girl looked at her. She smiled. Her lips moved, but there was no sound. And yet, the words seemed to echo through Ruby’s mind. _“Wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I”_.

She glanced at the blond boy, and smiled again. Ruby followed her gaze, and the boy, too, spoke silently. _“Snoitome eurt deen I”_.

The boy in the middle turned to face Ruby as well, his face seemingly warring between emotions.

Smiling, the two blonds each took the hand of their ‘twin’, and with a flash of light, seemed to merge and vanish. The remaining boy and girl each raised a hand to their heart, neatly mirrored. Then their eyes locked, and they embraced, visibly surrounded by a column of swirling motes of light. Both of them seemed to whisper, and again the words came drifting on the wind. _“Snwod dna spu ynam os…”_.

_**Without any help you will lose on your own** _

The third boy watched with a bittersweet smile, tears that seemed at once joyous and sorrowful welling in his eyes, unshed. The lights surrounding the happy couple seemed to form the shape of a star before they and the people vanished. A small bundle of three star-shaped fruits fell from his hand, unseen. He looked her straight in the eye, and like the others, spoke without sound. _“My heart's a battleground”_.

Darkness like that she’d been falling through seemed to pool around his feet, reaching up to envelop his feet and legs. A light shone on him from above, but the darkness didn’t retreat. If anything, it just grew stronger as the light did.

No!

RubyWeissBlakeYang reached for him, to pull him to safety. 

He too, raised a hand to his chest. The light and darkness bathing him seemed evenly matched. Balanced.

_**So you call out for me to come along** _

His hand closed on hers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : Yet another idea that wouldn’t go away. Though really, I think it’s a sensible enough idea; you can cross over pretty much anything with Kingdom Hearts. Suffice to say, though, that this kind of got out of control. More details to follow.
> 
> This was my best effort at a bullshitty Kingdom Hearts-style dream sequence. Sorry it’s not very good.  
> Ominous lyrics blatantly stolen from _Fallen Hero_ by Funker Vogt.  
>  More-recognizable lyrics from _Sanctuary_ (the English version of _Passion_ ) by Utada Hikaru.
> 
> (Originally started 04/24/2015).


	2. Honest Eyes

In a dark back alley of the city of Vale, out of sight of the street, a portal suddenly opened, which seemed to lead into the deepest darkness. An instant later, a figure staggered out of it, clad in a long, hooded black coat, and brandishing an odd weapon resembling a key. He slashed at the portal, which shrank to the size of a cat-flap, but did not fully close. Growling, the figure raised the weapon again, when he heard a horribly familiar skittering.

Several Shadows, like bipedal ants made from the same darkness as the portal with glowing yellow eyes, scampered out, only to be destroyed by further swipes of the key-shaped weapon. Finally, panting, the hooded figure slashed the portal again to close it, failing to notice the final shape that oozed from it and escaped. 

Clearly fatigued, the figure lurched toward the entrance of the alley, unaware of the last shadowy form now taking shape behind him as it rose from the ground. It had the same basic shape as the others, but was larger and appeared more muscular, with zig-zagging antennae that nearly brushed the ground behind its back. As its prey moved unsteadily toward the mouth of the alleyway, leaning heavily on the wall, the shadowy form began to stalk silently forward, its posture and gait unmistakably that of a predator. It prepared to spring.

“Look out!” a girl’s voice cried suddenly from the street.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the cloaked figure whirled on the spot, bringing the key-shaped weapon around to bisect his pursuer in mid-leap. As the Neoshadow faded once more into wisps of darkness, the cloaked man fell to his knees in exhaustion.

“Are you okay?” the same voice asked. A hand landed on the figure’s shoulder, and he jerked away, landing on his backside and bringing the weapon up defensively.

The girl stepped back, raising her hands to show they were empty in the universal sign of surrender. “Sorry!” she apologized hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to startle you!”

She looked to be about fifteen, and was wearing a black dress with lots of red accents, and a short, hooded red cape. There was an object—perhaps a weapon of some sort?—strapped to her lower back, but it was somehow collapsed, and thus unidentifiable.

Still breathing raggedly, the cloaked figure let the silence stretch a moment before whispering. “Where am I?”

“Um…an alleyway?” the girl answered uncertainly. “Are you lost? Are you uh…drunk?”

The hood moved in a way that indicated the unseen head shaking a negative. “Not drunk,” came the whispered reply. “Very lost.” There was another silence. “Would I look out of place wearing this coat, here in this world?” He gestured at himself.

The girl scratched her cheek, apparently bemused. “Probably…”

The stranger heaved himself to his feet, and let the coat fall—the right sleeve somehow slithered down the key-shaped weapon without snagging—revealing simple casual clothes: blue pants and a layered vest, predominantly white with accents of black and gold. As he stepped into the daylight, a sudden breeze blew his silver hair, long enough to reach between his shoulders. His wiry arms were crisscrossed with old scars, thrown into relief as he raised the Keyblade to rest on his shoulder. 

Seafoam-green eyes glanced into the alley as the girl who had helped him stepped back into the main road as well. “Sorry I startled you,” he said. “Is there anywhere close that I can sit down?” Though still attempting to be vigilant, he was swaying where he stood.

Seeming to sense that he didn’t want help moving, the girl led him barely a block, to a bench that sat before the seaside. He collapsed onto it, his weapon still over his shoulder, and shut his eyes. “Wake me up in ten minutes,” he requested. “If you can spare that much time to wait. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

The girl checked the time on some kind of device she kept in her pocket, then nodded, sitting down beside him. He felt her watching him, plainly bursting with questions, but she allowed him to doze enough to heal slightly.

* * *

A nudge to his shoulder told him that his resting time was up. He opened his eyes to find the girl gazing avidly at…his weapon. 

“Whoaaaa…” she whispered, apparently without realizing it. Her silver eyes were sparkling. “What is that?”

He held it up for her to see clearly. “This is my Keyblade.”

“That’s really cool!” she not-quite-squealed. “Does it have a name?”

“Way To The Dawn,” he answered. He paused a moment, then added, “And I’m Riku, by the way.”

The girl blushed almost as red as her hood. “Sorry! I really like weapons, is all. I’m Ruby.” She held out a hand, and after a moment Riku shook it. His time alone in the Realm of Darkness had left him paranoid and a little people-shy, but this girl…she reminded him of Sora.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Riku said. “Since you’re curious…before I earned a Keyblade, I used a sword that looked like this part.” He indicated the shaft of the weapon. “Once I proved myself worthy, and my Keyblade came to me, it took a similar form.”

The girl leaned forward to look more closely, her dark-red hair and bright scarlet cape fluttering in the slight breeze, but made no effort to reach for it. “ _Whoaaaa…_ ” she repeated. Then she shook her head, apparently to clear it, and asked, “What were you doing down that alley? How did you get there? What was that thing you fought? It didn’t look any Grimm I’ve ever fought…”

Choosing to ignore the impromptu interview, Riku glanced up and down the street. “Are you from around here?”

“Well, I grew up on Patch, but I’ve been living in Vale for a while,” Ruby replied. “I’m in training up at Beacon!”

Riku blinked. “So…Vale is this city?” he tried to clarify. He was still exhausted; his brain seemed to be working slowly.

Now Ruby blinked at him, tilting her head. “Are you here for the tournament?” she asked next, apparently ignoring his question as he had hers.

“No, I’m just…not from around here,” Riku answered, chuckling.

“So where are you staying?” she asked. Riku shrugged. “You don’t know!?” Ruby gasped. “Come with me!” She grabbed his hand and started dragging him down the street, chattering a mile a minute about going to meet her team and how they would help him find his feet. 

Puzzled but amused, Riku let himself be led along—surreptitiously dismissing Way To The Dawn after a few steps—until they reached a café where three more young girls sat outside under an umbrella.

“ _There_ you are!” growled the one with long white hair. She was dressed mostly in white too, though there were hints of red here and there in her bolero jacket and skirt. “What took you so long?”

“Who’s this?” asked the girl beside her, who wore a black bow in her long black hair, and had piercing yellow eyes that nearly made Riku call back his Keyblade. He gave himself a mental shake. Her eyes were _not_ the same yellow as the enemy’s; it might be perfectly normal here. She wore a black corset and tall black socks, with a white top and shorts.

“Whoever he is, he’s a real catch,” purred the fourth girl, who had great waves of golden-blonde hair. She had lilac-colored eyes, and a short-sleeved brown jacket over a yellow top, which was emblazoned on the chest with what looked like a burning heart. Her equally-yellow wristlets clanked softly as she rested her chin on her fingers, looking Riku up and down in an almost-predatory way. “Well done, sis.”

“Wha-” Ruby said, perplexed. Then she looked down at their joined hands and let go as if scalded. “No, Yang!” she shouted, blushing again. “Just…just no!”

“Oh, really?” Yang drawled, getting to her feet. “Well then, excuse my baby sister; why don’t you have a seat, handsome?”

Riku took a calm step to the side, not hurried enough to be pointed or rude, but enough to indicate that he’d prefer not to be touched. The blonde, Yang, gave him a smirk that told him she wasn’t done with him yet, but turned to begin bugging Ruby instead, asking how she ‘netted such a stud’. Riku, no stranger to being objectified, simply sighed. The constant love confessions before they were even ten years old had made him all but give up on girls when he was younger, at least until Kairi appeared.

“Since our ‘fearless leader’ doesn’t seem eager to introduce us, my name is Weiss,” said the white-haired girl after a moment. “This is Blake,” she added, indicating the black-haired girl, “and you’ve clearly met Ruby’s sister Yang.” This last was accompanied by a jerk of her head at the latter, who currently had Ruby in a headlock, apparently demanding to know where she had met Riku. 

“Riku,” he introduced himself to the seated girls. Glancing at the brawling sisters, he laid a hand on the back of the chair which had originally been left for Ruby. “May I sit down?”

“Feel free,” said Blake. “So what brings you to Vale?”

Riku merely shrugged. “Travelling accident, in a manner of speaking,” he said, vaguely. “Your friend dragged me here when I said I didn’t have anywhere to stay.”

“What are you doing travelling without accommodations?” Weiss demanded. “Don’t you even have an escort?”

“Normal people don’t have paramilitary escorts, Weiss,” Blake said quietly, sipping at her tea. Weiss gave her a look somewhere between a scowl and a pout. “I do have to wonder where you came from, though,” Blake continued. “Your clothes look vaguely Vacuan, but _you_ do not. Nor do you look Mistrali or Atlesian. So where on Remnant are you from?”

Though her voice was steady the whole time, Riku could feel the tension mounting. Unnervingly, both of these girls were armed too: Weiss with a rapier and Blake with some other kind of sword. He also had a funny feeling about Yang’s wristlets, though he couldn’t have explained why, and even if that instinct was wrong, the blonde was extremely muscular—she was probably stronger than he was. None of the girls were making any threatening moves, but Riku raised his hands calmingly. “I’m just a traveller. It’s easiest to explain that way.”

“So why not make it a little more complicated, before we have to arrest you,” Weiss said sharply.

Riku sighed. “Fine.” He laid his hands on the table. “I’m from another world. I came here by accident, nobody knows I’m here, and I don’t know when or how I’ll be able to leave again.”

Both girls stared at him, and he noticed the sound of the play-fight behind him had vanished, which probably meant Ruby and Yang were watching him too. He left his hands where they were, in plain sight, making no sudden moves.

“So we’ll be arresting you, then,” Weiss said dryly.

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Riku said earnestly. “You seem like good people, and Ruby’s been very nice. I don’t want to fight.”

Weiss scoffed. “Fight us? All by yourself? You don’t even have a weapon.”

Behind him, Riku heard a gasp that he thought came from Ruby. “Where’s your weapon? Did you drop it while I was pulling you? I’m sorry!” 

“It’s always with me,” Riku reassured her, without turning away from Blake’s penetrating gaze. It was clear to him that she was the one who needed to be convinced that he wasn’t a threat. “Blake, was it? I can understand your disbelief in the answer that I gave you, but the truth doesn’t require belief. You’re correct in your assumptions that I don’t come from any of those places you mentioned. I don’t even know what world this is, much less where any of those places are. I’m not from here. I’m an outsider. Isn’t that enough?”

“Enough to be suspicious,” Weiss shot back. She was scowling openly now, and Riku sensed some kind of energy building behind him as he heard knuckles crack. He forced himself to keep sitting still, looking steadily at Blake.

Finally, Blake spoke again. “Stand down, Yang.” The building energy behind him diminished.

“Why!?” Weiss sputtered, turning to glare at Blake instead.

“Because he’s telling the truth,” Blake replied quietly. “Either that, or he simply believes that he is, in which case he’s completely crazy. And it’s a bad idea to pick fights with crazy people.”

Riku couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing, and he could have sworn he saw a slight smile playing around Blake’s mouth as well. Yang sat back down heavily in her seat, and Ruby perched herself on the arm of her sister’s chair, signalling the staff to bring them more drinks.

“Do you want something?” she asked Riku politely.

He shook his head. “I don’t have any Munny on me.”

Ruby waved his excuse off. “We’ve got lien to spare after our last mission! Try the hot chocolate, it’s amazing!”

“If you insist,” he said, with a small smile. She really was a lot like Sora.

When the waiter had come and gone, Ruby leaned forward. “So where did your Keyblade go?”

“Keyblade?” Blake repeated.

“It comes when it’s needed and goes when it’s not.” Riku reassured Ruby. “I can call it back, if you want?” 

Ruby nodded eagerly, and Yang looked mildly interested, though she seemed more focused on his biceps. Riku glanced at Weiss, who was still glaring suspiciously, and Blake, who was watching him steadily, sipping at her tea. “Go ahead.”

Riku held out his hand, then closed it, and with a flash of light, his Keyblade sat reassuringly in his hand. He laid it on the table, nudging the handle toward Ruby to indicate she could examine it if she wished. True to form, she wasted no time in setting down her cocoa and picking it up, testing the weight and balance instantly. Curious, Riku tried a sip of his own hot chocolate. Ruby was right, it was excellent.

“So what else can it do?” Ruby asked, almost bouncing as she scrutinized the Keyblade. 

“It calls to the Enemy and it destroys them,” he summarized. “It comes and goes as it’s needed. It acts as a focus for my power. It opens and closes locks. That’s about the gist of it.”

“ _Any_ lock?” Ruby repeated.

“Big or small,” Riku confirmed. “From the tiniest locket to the grand Keyhole of Kingdom Hearts.”

“And what about that thing you killed in the alley?” Ruby pressed on.

“There was a Grimm in the city?” Weiss asked sharply.

Riku shook his head. “I have no idea what a Grimm is, but what I fought was not one. Heartless followed me and I dispatched them.” He nodded at the Keyblade.

Weiss raised an eyebrow, perhaps doubting his ability to fight. Riku shrugged. He had earned his Mark of Mastery fairly. Gentle boasting may have been in his nature, but his youthful arrogance had been tempered by the time he spent immersed in darkness. 

Blake seemed more accepting of his story, perhaps again determining that he was telling the truth. He wasn’t sure how she had decided he was telling the truth, but since he really was, he simply let it be. Ruby was still paying more attention to the Keyblade than the conversation, tracing the lines of the bat-wing shaft and the angel-wing bit with her fingers.

Yang’s gaze, by contrast, was still lingering on his arms, or perhaps his scars. She twisted her wrists, and her yellow wristlets expanded into gauntlets. “Wanna go a few rounds?”

“That could mean several things, coming from you, Yang,” Blake teased easily.

“I’d be okay with any of ‘em,” Yang shot back, winking at Riku.

“Maybe later,” he said, with a tiny smirk. He mentally called the Keyblade back, and with a swirl of light, it was comfortably in his grasp, leaving Ruby staring at her empty hands. Riku opened his fingers, and Way To The Dawn vanished entirely once more.

“Heyyyy!” Ruby pouted.

“You can see it more another time,” Riku promised. “It’s been lovely to meet all of you. Thank you for the cocoa.” He stood to leave, but Ruby grabbed his wrist again. He sighed.

“But you said you don’t have anywhere to go!” she exclaimed.

Riku shrugged. “I’m a Keyblade Master on a journey. I can take care of myself.” He smiled at her. “Thank you for your concern, but if there’s nowhere to be in the city, I’ll head for the countryside.”

“But you can’t!” Ruby insisted. 

“Too dangerous, cutie,” said Yang.

Even Weiss was shaking her head, dismissing his statement.

“It’s not safe outside the Kingdom’s walls,” Blake said. “That you don’t even know that, convinces me more than anything that you’re really from another world.”

Riku felt his eyebrows rise at the thought that four girls his own age were going to order him around, but kept the incredulity from his voice. “Then I’ll head back to that bench I napped on earlier. I could use some more sleep. After that, I’ll need to figure out where to get a square meal, and then I’m back on my feet.” They were all staring at him, so Riku gave another shrug. “It’s pretty much that simple.”

“What you _need_ is information, Mister Traveller,” said Weiss. “So you’d better stick with us.”

“Why?” he asked pointedly. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but you’ve got no reason to trust me and many reasons not to. Not to mention that you, in particular, don’t seem to like me,” he added to Weiss, who colored slightly at his words. “Please don’t be offended, but I’m not blind, you know.”

“Just because I don’t trust you doesn’t mean I’m about to let you wander off to die!” Weiss scowled, still blushing a little. “I’m not heartless.”

“Maybe there’s not many reasons,” Yang admitted. “But Ruby likes you and Blake says she believes your story. That’s enough reasons for me.” An ominous click came from a chamber of her gauntlet as she pointed it at him. “Don’t give us reason to regret it, okay?” Though her tone was still playful, the look in her eye told him the threat was real.

“Sit back downnn,” Ruby cajoled him, pushing him back into his seat. “If you’re hungry, we’ll get some food. We came here for lunch anyway, the drinks were just the beginning. And there’s a place up the street that has _incredible_ desserts!”

Resigning himself to sticking with his self-appointed guides, Riku sat. They were really something else—all very different, but with a chemistry that reminded him of himself, Sora, and Kairi, back on Destiny Islands.

Riku smiled. These were plainly good people, that he had befriended almost the moment he appeared on a new world. It seemed Sora was rubbing off on him.

* * *

Dinner and dessert passed easily, with Riku quickly getting a grasp on the general geographic and political state of this world, Remnant. He still didn’t quite understand what the girls meant by ‘Grimm’, but by the description they sounded somewhat similar to Heartless: predominantly mindless monsters who lived to kill. 

The girls also defined what they called Aura, which seemed to work similarly to Riku’s own power…though they quantified it in a way he wasn’t familiar with. They also mostly favored an outside energy source, called Dust, rather than magic…but since Riku was lousy with magic himself, he couldn’t exactly demonstrate. He had only ever managed to manifest his Darkness powers, and doing so would certainly attract unneeded attention, not to mention strain his recovering body.

No doubt that strain was caused by hijacking the Corridor of Darkness that had brought him here. He wasn’t able to use them safely anymore, even with the Black Coat, no longer being immersed in darkness since the detonation of Ansem the Wise’s device in The World That Never Was. The device had overloaded in an attempt to encode and digitize Kingdom Hearts, and the backlash had restored Riku’s true form, destroying the Seeker of Darkness guise that he had worn like a second skin, wrought from the darkness remaining in his own heart…

The hairs on the back of Riku’s neck prickled.

He froze, as did Blake, directly in front of him. Ruby, walking beside Riku, also paused. Yang and Weiss continued another few steps, oblivious, until Ruby called softly to them. Blake’s bow seemed to be twitching, but Riku was paying more attention to the alleyways they were passing.

“What’s that smell?” he heard Blake mutter. Riku sniffed as well, and growled. He knew that stench. 

The odious, corrosive reek of darkness.

As if the thought had conjured them, glowing yellow eyes began to appear in the shadowy alley across the street, and under the nearby vehicles—small pricks breaking the darkness. Shadows. There were dozens of them. What were they doing here…but of course, they were simply following the Keyblade, just as he had told the girls.

“Stay back,” he said calmly, Way To The Dawn materializing in his hand as he stepped toward the alley. 

As he drew near, the Shadows leaped, brandishing their sharp claws, but their mindless lack of coordination worked against them, as ever. He vanquished four with a single strike, then went to work systematically eliminating them. They were only Shadows, easily dispatched…though he thought he saw a larger figure lurking in the back of the alley. An Invisible, perhaps; that would be a Heartless powerful enough to command this many Shadows.

Riku kicked a Shadow out of his way, and flung Way To The Dawn directly at the lurking Invisible. As soon as it struck, he recalled the Keyblade and smoothly threw it again. The Invisible tried to parry the attack with its own massive sword, but moved too slowly and was destroyed. The remainder of the Shadows milled about for a moment then all sprang for him at once. Riku used a spin attack he had picked up from Sora to kill them all, then straightened up, scanning the surrounding area again.

Well, that battle actually told him something. He had so far encountered only Shadows, Neoshadows, and that one Invisible. All pureblood Heartless, born simply from the darkness within people’s hearts. None bore the Emblem that signified they had been manufactured by the Enemy.

Turning back to his friends, Riku saw that he’d been wrong—not all of the Heartless had been Shadows, and not all of them had swarmed him. There had been some Neoshadows hidden among the horde, and they had bypassed him to attack the girls. Weiss, and Yang were each bound to the ground by one, and only Blake stood between them and three more who would soon take advantage of their allies’ restraints. Ruby was holding off yet another three, wielding a frankly _enormous_ scythe, worthy of the Nobody Marluxia from the first Organization XIII, whom Sora had battled in Castle Oblivion.

Riku hurried to rejoin the fray.

* * *

“What…the hell are these things?” Yang growled, struggling to get free. “Some new species of Grimm?”

“They can’t be,” Weiss was clawing for her rapier, but couldn’t reach it. “No masks. And look at their eyes.”

“What are you talking about, Weiss?” Blake asked, whipping out her blade on the end of a long ribbon to keep the Neoshadows at bay.

“Grimm…have red eyes–” the white-haired girl gasped for breath, the rest of her words cut off as the Neoshadow’s grip shifted to her throat. Her eyes bulged.

“Weiss!” Yang’s eyes flashed, suddenly red instead of lilac, and with a wordless roar she tore herself free of the Neoshadow’s restraint, actually dragging the Heartless out of the ground. She whirled and punched it, her gauntlets firing a blast like a small cannon. The Neoshadow dispersed.

 _Incredible_ , Riku thought.

Weiss, still scrabbling at the shadowy grip on her neck with her right hand, finally managed to close her left around the hilt of her weapon. As the Neoshadow’s head rose questingly from the shadow beside her, she inverted the weapon and stabbed it directly between the eyes. She squeezed what looked like a trigger under her finger, and a surge of bluish energy seemed to run down the blade, killing her captor and allowing her to take a gasping breath.

_Another? Amazing._

All this had occurred in the time it took Riku to re-cross the street. He made to join Ruby as Weiss and Yang stepped up beside Blake. The three of them should be a match for the three they faced, while he himself would have been equal to all of them, even without Ruby’s help.

Then he had to duck as the scythe whirled past his head, gave a tiny hop to avoid a swing that nearly removed his feet, and finally dived forward into a roll to avoid a third slash that would have sliced him in half. He wasn’t sure if Ruby was trying to attack him or simply trusting him to dodge as she swung at the Heartless. Fortunately, the Neoshadows did not prove as agile as he was, and a final, quick spin of the weapon took one at the neck and the other at the waist. Ruby then planted the blade of her scythe into the ground, the head pointing directly at the remaining Neoshadow, some ten feet away. Then there was a click, a loud report, and a large hole appeared in the Neoshadow’s chest. It looked down, seeming almost puzzled, before it dissolved into motes of darkness.

Turning, Riku saw Blake wrap up the final Neoshadow in her ribbon for Weiss to stab before it could vanish back into the ground. The prickling of his instincts faded away, and the feeling of the Heartless’ presence was gone. Shaking his head, Riku dismissed the Keyblade, walking over to the other three of them.

_Four girls my age destroyed eight Neoshadows by themselves? Without a Keyblade?_

Before he could offer his congratulations, however, Weiss had rounded on him, brandishing her weapon. Another flash of blue light surged down the blade, which was pointed at his feet, and suddenly Riku’s legs were encased in ice. He windmilled, trying not to fall, and barely managing to regain his balance before the tip of the rapier was at his throat.

“What were those creatures?” Weiss asked, ignoring Ruby’s protests, her voice quite cold. “They weren’t Grimm. I’ve never seen their like before. You brought them here, didn’t you?”

Riku sighed. “Yes and no,” he answered. 

A chamber near the hilt of the rapier revolved, and yellow light crackled down the blade like Thunder magic. “Would you care to rephrase?” Weiss asked icily.

“I did not intentionally bring them with me,” he clarified. “Most likely, there was already the potential for them to exist here, and my presence is making them rise.” He frowned slightly, unperturbed by his frozen legs or the weapon before him. “There must be a lot of darkness inherent in this world, though. The ordinary darkness in people’s hearts shouldn’t give rise to anything more powerful than the small-fry Shadows I was fighting over there.” He jerked his head toward the alley. “The Neoshadows you fought are much stronger, smarter, and more coordinated…I think they were taking direction from an even more powerful Heartless called an Invisible.”

“That’s enough, Weiss,” Blake cut in as Weiss began to speak again. Scowling, Weiss sheathed her weapon, and turned away crossing her arms. Idly, Riku suddenly noticed that she fought with her left hand. Interesting. That was rare.

There was a loud crunching noise, and Riku glanced down to find Yang had punched at the ice around his legs. She glanced up, smirking, and winked. Riku rolled his eyes, and wrenched his feet free. Her smirk became a scowl. “You could have done that all along!” she accused, standing up and dusting off her knees.

“Yeah,” he said, nonplussed. Of course he could have. He was a Keyblade Master, wasn’t he? Even if he couldn’t, he could have summoned his weapon to cut himself free. “Anyway, I’m really sorry about that; I wouldn’t have left you guys if I’d known there were Neoshadows lurking. They’re much more cunning than ordinary Shadows.”

“But what _are_ they?” Ruby pressed him. She still hadn’t put away her scythe, instead balancing it on one shoulder. Aside from the fact that she, too, appeared to be left-handed, her casual posture with her weapon again irresistibly recalled Sora, and Riku had to fight the urge to grin.

“They are the Heartless,” he answered. “Like I said, they must be rising in response to the Keyblade’s arrival.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked, looking quizzical, but it was Blake who replied.

“It attracts them, doesn’t it?” she asked shrewdly. “That’s what you meant when you said, _‘It calls to the Enemy and it destroys them’_ , right?”

Riku could only nod. “Heartless are born from the darkness in people's hearts; they operate on instinct, and exist solely to seek more hearts and create more Heartless,” he offered; a heavily cut-down summary of what he had learned since leaving Destiny Islands. “They also tend to hunt those who wield the Keyblade, using the Keyblade itself like a beacon, because the Keyblade holds the power to destroy the Heartless, and to lock and unlock hearts. As a result, we Keyblade wielders are constantly under attack.”

“What do you mean by _‘the darkness in people’s hearts’_?” Yang asked.

“Nearly every heart contains some darkness. Primal sorts of emotions: hate, fear, resentment, greed, the desire for revenge… As the darkness grows in strength, so do those feelings; the darkness both draws out and amplifies them. When they overwhelm the heart, a Heartless is born.” He bit his lip, then added, “If you see any Heartless bearing an Emblem like a black heart with a jagged red cross, please let me know—that emblem is the mark of an artificially-created Heartless, and they absolutely should not be here.”

“Are you saying that the ones we fought _do_ belong?” Ruby asked skeptically.

“No, of course not,” he said quickly, “but Pureblood Heartless like that arise naturally. Are you sure you’ve never seen anything like them before?”

“They look a little like the creatures of Grimm, but they definitely aren’t the same,” Blake said.

Weiss chose that moment to stalk off. Yang followed, shrugging apologetically. Blake just sighed, “Is this why you were so eager to leave us, before?”

“More like trying to defend against the possibility,” Riku said, uncomfortably. “Besides I’m…not really all that good with people. I’m not Sora; I don’t make friends as easily as that sap.” The affection in his voice was clear.

Blake pinched her nose, and said, “So as long as you’re here, those things are going to keep coming for you?”

“Always,” he confirmed. “You guys will be safe once you’re away from me.”

Blake just shook her head. “You’re lucky you have honest eyes,” she said enigmatically.

She met Ruby’s eye over Riku’s shoulder, then turned to follow her teammates. Riku turned to Ruby, intending to congratulate her on her team’s combat ability, but froze at the sight. Her silver eyes were wide, and her lip was trembling.

“Where are you going to go?” she demanded.

“I told you, I can take care of myself,” he said soothingly, doing his level best not to talk to her as he would to Sora. Amazingly, he managed not to sound aloof and arrogant, as he so often had, barely a year ago. “I appreciate the meal and the backup in that fight, but you guys shouldn’t have been put in danger because of me. I’m not going to let that happen again. What I need to do is find this world’s Keyhole and protect it from the Heartless.”

Ruby blinked, apparently forgetting to be angry or sad. “What will happen if you don’t?”

“If enough Heartless find it, they may overrun the World’s Heart, and Remnant will be consumed by the Darkness. Protecting worlds is a lot easier than restoring darkened ones; usually all we have to do is follow the trail where the Heartless are thickest and let them lead us to it.” He paused, thinking back on their conversation over dinner. “It’s hard to say where the Keyhole might be here on Remnant, especially since you said most of the planet is empty, untamed wilderness. It could take a while.”

“Then you’ve got no real immediate plans, so you still need a home base,” Ruby declared. She collapsed her scythe, holstered it, and grabbed his hand in both of hers. “Come up to Beacon with us; you can use it as a headquarters and a safe place to stay for now!”

“Come to…” he repeated, bemused. “You want me to go to _school_ with you?”

“Well, why not?” Ruby said, apparently working herself up to being more and more excited. “You need to know more about Remnant and you need to learn about the Grimm, and you can learn both at Beacon. Plus, everyone there is in training like us, so they’ll be able to protect themselves if more Heartless come. And we have airships and good meals and a great big library and Professor Ozpin to help you!”

She was tugging on his hand now, beginning to drag him up the road after her retreating teammates.

“Ruby, your team has every reason to hate me, now. Aren’t you the leader? You can’t just ignore their feelings to help me…” Riku protested.

Ruby just scoffed. “ _Naaah_ … I’m the leader so they have to listen to me!” Her tone said she understood it wasn’t that simple, but that she was confident it would work out.

“And what am I supposed to do, sleep in your dorm?” Riku added sarcastically, trying to tug his hand free of her grip.

“I don’t see why not,” Ruby chirped. Shocked, Riku forgot to keep trying to free himself, and she pulled him on up the road unhindered. “I mean, they’re co-ed dorms. Team JNPR across the hall has two boys and two girls and they do fine. I don’t think it’ll be a problem at all, unless some teacher spots you and throws you out for not being a student. But! As long as you move around at night or while everyone’s in class, I bet nobody will bug you.”

“Ruby, this is a terrible plan!” Riku continued to object.

“Nope! This is what we’re doing!” she overrode him, now dragging him in earnest. “It’ll be _fiiine_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : So I told myself that I was just going to pencil out a few scenes for this story, before working on _Unto The Breach_ instead. Then I had another scene. Then another. Next thing I knew, Riku and Team RWBY were battling Heartless and I kept trying to separate them so they could meet up later but Ruby wouldn’t let Riku leave. So here we are, with Riku being dragged up to Beacon instead of doing some recon around Vale like I had planned.
> 
> The spin attack in question is Vicinity Break, by the way. I don’t think the name is as well known as some of the more special moves. Riku is also probably going to use Strike Raid a lot in this story, because it’s a hugely underutilized technique that takes great advantage of the fact that a Keyblade Wielder is essentially impossible to disarm.
> 
> Finally, Ruby isn’t actually _‘forgetting to be angry or sad’_ after the battle; Riku misinterpreted her bafflement as to why he would apologize for _‘putting them in danger’_. They’re Huntresses-in-training. They eat danger for breakfast.
> 
> (Originally started 04/23/2015).


	3. Ozpin, The Cryptic And Mysterious

Night had fallen in earnest by the time Ruby successfully pulled a half-protesting Riku into the courtyard at Beacon Academy. Riku was still convinced that he was only going to get Ruby and her team in trouble, but Ruby insisted that sneaking him in wouldn’t be too difficult, and that Yang did things like this all the time…and rather like Sora she seemed to get her way in the end.

They were moving down a flagstone path, past a fountain featuring a man and woman in armour standing triumphantly over a fallen bearlike creature, when the silence was suddenly broken.

“Bringing home strays, Miss Rose?” came an amused voice. 

They both spun on the spot to see a very tall man with silver hair like Riku’s standing directly behind them, dressed in an impeccable suit over an emerald-green shirt. He was leaning on a cane of some sort, and in his free hand was a coffee mug.

Riku took an automatic step back, regaining some distance. Who was this man? Riku hadn’t even heard him approach. He also smelled subtly different than anyone else Riku had encountered in Remnant so far, though he couldn’t put his finger on why.

Ruby did not move away, but merely scratched her head in embarrassment. “Hello there, Professor Ozpin. My friend here had nowhere to stay, and I didn't want him to have to sleep on a park bench in the city.”

The Professor raised his mug to his lips. “No, we certainly cannot have that,” he said evenly. “But I wonder, why not approach a teacher?”

“Well, I, uh…”

Ozpin sighed. “We _are_ here to help you, Ruby. Please try to remember that.”

She nodded sheepishly, and he continued, “Why don’t you and your friend accompany me to my office, and we'll see what can be done.”

It was quite obviously not a question, and both teens fell into step behind him.

Ruby pouted dejectedly, though not as if she was expecting to get in trouble. Rather, it seemed like she was just disappointed to have been caught, when she had planned to handle everything herself.

So very like a certain spiky-haired friend of Riku’s. The similarities really were uncanny. The giggles were becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.

When they reached the headmaster’s office, he settled himself heavily behind his desk, in a chair that seemed to be constructed from welded-together gears. Ruby took a seat in front of the desk, but Riku remained standing a little distance back, staring up at the gears turning in the ceiling. They reminded him a little of the Station Tower in Twilight Town, though the design as a whole was much more contemporary.

“So, what is your name, young man?” Professor Ozpin asked Riku, taking another sip from his coffee mug and getting right to the point. Seated there, behind the desk, he radiated authority…though Riku hadn’t exactly gotten to where he was by blindly obeying authority. 

Still, there was no call to be rude.

“Riku, sir.”

“Where are you from, Riku?” His voice was affable, even friendly, but still brooked no argument.

“I am from another world,” Riku answered baldly.

“I see.” The headmaster’s expression did not change. “And how, exactly, did you come to be here on _this_ world?” 

There was no indication as to whether he believed Riku’s answer or not. Still, Ruby had held up Professor Ozpin as someone that could help Riku with his goals, and disrespect for authority or no, Riku could sense that the Professor was no pushover. 

“Through a Corridor of Darkness, sir. Which, I admit, I should not have been using.”

“It is forbidden?” Ozpin inquired.

“They’re not safe,” Riku clarified. “Travelling the Corridors exposes you directly to darkness. It corrodes the heart. I was in a pinch, and used it as a last-ditch escape.” 

“At which point, you met Miss Rose.” Ozpin finished for him, as though he expected nothing less. “How old are you, Riku?”

“Sixteen, sir.” At least, he thought he was sixteen. How did you measure time when hopping between worlds and universes? Sensing that Ozpin was fishing for his story, he said briefly, “I left home a little after my fifteenth birthday. I made a lot of mistakes, and ended up hurting my best friends, but they saved me and everyone else. A year after that, we worked together to battle a threat to all the worlds. We succeeded, but the threat was only delayed, not defeated. From there we were challenged to obtain our Mastery, which I did. My friend is training to take the test again. I was journeying, as is my right as a Master, before I found myself here.”

“And is there some symbol which indicates your rank, Riku?” Ozpin asked, almost slyly, except that his tone hadn’t changed. It was almost like he _knew_ …

Riku drew from his pocket the spiky, heart-shaped sigil representing his Mark of Mastery, holding it up for Ozpin to examine.

“I see,” the Professor said after a moment. “And are you familiar with any other Masters?”

“Are _you_ , sir?” Riku shot back, tired of the word games.

Ozpin smiled, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “I wondered how long your patience would allow my questioning,” he said softly, sounding amused. “In answer, I have met only one other fellow who held such a sigil, though his was of a different color. A tiny king with large, round ears…”

“You know His Majesty?” Riku gasped, unconsciously stepping forward.

“Oh, yes,” the headmaster replied. “He used to bring me such lovely coffee.” Riku tried and failed to imagine the King sipping coffee like Ozpin. It just didn’t fit.

“When was this?” Riku asked eagerly.

“Many years ago, now, I’m afraid,” Ozpin replied. Riku slumped. “Judging by your story, I am going to assume that there is no one who knows that you are here?”

“No, sir. I was journeying alone while Sora prepared to re-test for his Mark of Mastery. My friends may come looking for me eventually, but they would have no reason to come here in particular. I had never even heard of this world until I arrived.”

“And you cannot simply leave by the way you came?” the Professor pressed.

“That would not be a good idea,” said Riku slowly. “I have worked…extensively…with the darkness before, and I know my limits. Travelling the Corridors exceeds them.”

“Then it would seem you are in need of a place to stay for the time being,” Ozpin finished. “Perhaps you should remain here at Beacon? This place is defensible and secure, and our library is an excellent repository of knowledge about our world. Additionally, I am sure that our students could learn much from a Master such as yourself.”

Riku blinked. Those had been Ruby’s arguments, almost exactly. He glanced at her, and she grinned, looking smug. 

Apparently misinterpreting his look, Ozpin went on, “Ah, but of course, you would be welcome to stay with Miss Rose and her team for as long as you remain here at Beacon.” Riku opened his mouth to protest, but Ozpin kept talking. “Yes, yes; you’re quite welcome. Now, there are only a few rules that I will ask you adhere to while you remain, and I am sure you will understand. I ask that you respect the Professors, and should the need arise, that you join in the defense of this Academy. Since your Mark of Mastery precludes me from treating you as anything other than a fellow Huntsman, I would request you participate in an…assessment of your skills. You will not, strictly speaking, be a student, so you will be free of such responsibilities as homework; however, I do ask that you audit our classes some of the time, and participate in such assignments as you may be given during classtime. It will be an excellent example for our students. If you do this, you will be allowed to take on missions throughout the Kingdom of Vale while you search for a way back home—and, I presume, for the ‘Keyhole of this World’ which our mutual friend the King once mentioned to me?”

Riku just nodded, still a little stupefied.

“Splendid, then it is settled.” Ozpin rose to his feet, draining his coffee mug. “Miss Rose can escort you to her dorm. I shall inform the staff of your presence in the morning, Riku. Have a lovely evening.” He gave a short bow, plainly dismissing them, then crossed to a desk by the window where a coffeepot stood waiting, some steam rising from its spout.

Ruby bounded to her feet, saluted Ozpin’s back, then seized Riku’s hand yet again and began dragging him away. “I can walk, Ruby!” he exclaimed, stumbling after her for the umpteenth time that day. Neither saw the fond smile cross Professor Ozpin’s face as he gazed out the window over his city.

* * *

“ _What do you mean he’s staying here with us!?_ ” Weiss shrieked.

Riku was standing just inside the dorm room, leaning his forehead against the wall with his eyes shut tight. Ruby had not knocked before pushing the door open and dragging him inside, apparently forgetting that it was nighttime and her teammates were bound to be getting ready for bed. Weiss had been in a nightgown and crawling into bed—hardly a scandalous position or mode of dress—but she seemed infuriated. Perhaps it was simply that he was mostly a stranger, suddenly thrown into their personal living space?

“C’mon, Weiss, did you really expect Ruby to let someone she considers a friend wander off on his own?” Yang asked, sounding almost reasonable, and not at all upset that she herself had been shirtless when they’d entered.

“Actually, it was Professor Ozpin’s idea!” Ruby chirped. “Sorry, Weiss,” she added, sounding genuinely apologetic.

“Where is he going to sleep?” Blake asked the obvious question. Riku heard all four of them looking at each other. There was an intake of breath, but Blake spoke again before it was even over, “Do not call ‘dibs’, Yang.” The breath sighed back out.

“I’ll be all right by the windowsill,” Riku offered. “That bookshelf looked sturdy enough to hold me, right?”

“Definitely,” said Ruby. Then, “Wait, you’re going to lay on the top of the bookshelf?”

“I was just going to sit, actually,” Riku repeated, still resolutely facing the wall with his eyes closed. “I don’t sleep very much these days, so I don’t have to come in until you’re all in bed, and I’ll be out of your way long before you wake up. I also promise not to snore,” he added, trying to lighten the mood. “Be glad it’s me here, and not my friend Sora.”

“You can turn around,” Blake said. “We’ll see about getting another bed tomorrow.”

“It’s fine, really.” Riku crossed to the window, ignoring Weiss’ resolutely turned-away face, barely visible in her bed from under the blanket pulled up to her ears. He raised a corner of the curtain and examined the window frame, then tested the bookcase to be certain it would hold his weight. Reassured, he climbed onto it, leaned against the frame on the side further from Weiss, and let the curtain fall into place over him. It covered him almost entirely, blocking his view of the room, and was actually reasonably warm.

“This is perfect,” he said quietly, looking out over the courtyard toward the cliffs, and the sea. “Good night.”

“Um. Good night, then,” Ruby said uncertainly. A moment later he heard ropes creaking, indicating she had climbed into bed, and two more sets of bedsprings as Blake and Yang also prepared for sleep.

Riku’s eyes rose to the stars, words he had once read rising unbidden to his mind: 

_There are many worlds, but they share the same sky — One sky; one destiny._

Somewhere out there, the Destiny Islands awaited his return. Somewhere, his friends trained. His eyelids drooped, showing just how tired he really was. He had been out of sorts since he arrived on Remnant, and all the events since had nearly drained him completely. Despite his appearance, he desperately needed rest to recover his energy after the ordeal that had landed him here.

* * *

Riku returned to consciousness as the sun rose, though he remained frozen with his eyes shut tight, betraying no sign that he was awake. The room beyond the curtain covering him was quiet—four sets of lungs breathing deeply and regularly, broken every few minutes by Yang mumbling in her sleep, and an occasional tiny, whistling snore that he thought might have come from Ruby. No irregularities, no movement, no unexpected scents, and no tingling sensation to indicate the presence of an enemy.

He opened his eyes slowly. The rim of the sun was peeking over the horizon. He had slept far longer than he expected, though given the injuries and exhaustion he had been hiding, perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise. Slipping out from behind the curtain, he lowered his feet to the floor beside the bookcase. Instantly, one of the breathing patterns changed. He looked to his left. One gleaming yellow eye peered back at him from Blake’s bunk.

“You’re up early,” she commented quietly.

“You’re a very light sleeper,” he whispered back, equally obviously.

After a moment, the eye slid closed again and Riku left the dorm. The door opposite had a small plaque with four letters engraved on it: JNPR. Glancing at the door he had just exited, Riku noticed something he’d missed last night: RWBY. A designation for their team, perhaps? He had just assumed that Ruby was referring to her team by her own name as she chattered, while she dragged him all the way to the school. But she had mentioned a team of friends she called ‘Juniper’, which he supposed could be rendered ‘JNPR’.

He needed a washroom. Riku glanced up and down the hallway. No indication of which way to go. Before he could pick at random, the JNPR door opened quietly and a slender boy with black hair stepped out. He was wearing a rumpled green shirt, half-unbuttoned, and carrying a bottle of shampoo with a picture of a samurai on it. There seemed to be a pink streak in his hair as well. He caught sight of Riku, and piercing magenta eyes gave him a once-over. He said nothing, but tilted his head for Riku to follow.

With no other prospects, Riku did so, and was led promptly to the bathroom around the next corner. It was fortunate, because Riku had been planning to begin searching on his own in the other direction. No matter. He took care of the morning’s necessities, and called a quiet thanks to the boy, who was still in the shower.

“Not at all,” came the soft reply. “If you leave swiftly, your walk of shame can still be mostly private.”

Riku paused with his hand on the doorknob. “My what?”

The hiss of water stopped, the curtain drew back, and the boy stepped out wearing sandals, a towel around his waist, and another around his hair. “Team RWBY was down in the city yesterday, and you are a stranger who seems unfamiliar with Beacon. I assumed you were one of Yang’s conquests, trying to sneak out early,” he said casually. 

Riku almost choked, and shook his head. “No, Ruby brought me up here.”

The boy’s eyebrows rose. “I see,” he said after a moment, with a small smirk. “Well. Good for her.”

After a moment, Riku clapped a hand to his face as his brain caught up and realized the implication behind what he had said. “I _meant_ that I met the four of them in town yesterday, and Ruby insisted I accompany her to the school when she learned I had nowhere to stay.” Light, that was a slip of the tongue worthy of Sora. “Basically I’m a guest here.”

“I had assumed that was the case,” assured the other. “That sounds more like her; she has a good heart. Doubtless she considers you ‘a friend’, so it is not really a surprise that she would go to such lengths.”

Riku shrugged. Yet another way the cute, silver-eyed girl was like Sora.

“My name is Lie Ren,” he told Riku. If you’ll allow me a moment to dress, I will show you down to breakfast.” Riku nodded his thanks. 

As Riku waited beside the JNPR door, there was a commotion from within the RWBY dorm. Then JNPR’s door opened again, and Riku’s self-appointed guide emerged, dressed in a school uniform and trailed by a short girl with orange hair. 

She opened her mouth when she saw Riku, but her companion covered it without hesitation. “Our teammates are still asleep, Nora.”

The girl looked sheepish. “Sorry, Ren.” She seemed a bouncy sort, and judging by Ren’s reaction, she had probably been about to shout. They turned to leave, when RWBY’s door was flung open and Ruby dashed out, only to crash immediately into Riku. Fortunately, he was able to catch her before she fell.

“Good morning, Ruby,” he said, as though nothing odd had happened. He saw Ren give a tiny smile, and thought that he had finally found someone with a similarly subdued sense of humor. Hovering in the doorway behind Ruby, Blake smiled as well. 

“I thought you’d run away!” Ruby exclaimed, hands latching onto his once more.

“I told you I’d be out of the way by the time your team woke up, didn’t I?” Riku reminded her. “Then your friend Ren offered to show me to the cafeteria so I wouldn’t have to wander around.” Ren gave a solemn nod, his hand firmly back over Nora’s mouth since Ruby had appeared. 

Ruby was actually looking sad, her expression nearly mirroring the one she’d worn after the fight with the Heartless yesterday, when he’d tried to leave. He patted her hand as he finally extracted his own. “You got your way, Ruby. I’m staying here with you guys. The fact that I’m used to working alone is not an insult, all right?”

Looking mollified, Ruby nodded in acceptance of this. By now, the rest of their teammates were awake, so the group headed down to the cafeteria together.

* * *

A few introductions—and one story of the previous day’s events, narrated by an excitable Ruby—later, Riku found himself seated at a table between Ruby and Blake, and across from Team JNPR. He marvelled to himself at what he considered Sora’s Luck: He had been on a new world for less than twenty-four hours, and here he sat in a chattering group of what were assuredly new friends. To someone like Riku, who tended to work alone, or at best in direct competition with a singular rival, it was a very new experience, though not an unpleasant one.

Something caught his eye and nose at the same time, and he twisted in his seat as a girl with long brown hair passed behind him. He leaned down toward Ruby, who was closest. “Who is that?” he asked, nodding at the girl’s back.

“Hunh?” Ruby mumbled through a mouthful of pancake. She swallowed. “You mean Velvet?”

“If that’s her name,” said Riku. “Uh, is it just me, or does she have rabbit’s ears?”

Ruby blinked, looking puzzled. “Of course she does. She’s a Faunus. She’s an upperclassman, and really nice, though sometimes people pick on her,” she added sadly.

Faunus. Odd word, but he supposed it made sense. Another species; mostly humanoid, but with some animalian characteristics. Looking around the now mostly-full cafeteria, he noticed a pair of horns, a crest of hair that seemed to actually be feathers, and handful of students with tails of one sort or another. Interesting. Being a different race would would explain the variance in scent he had noticed, as well. It was subtle, but there was simply something indefinably different.

He turned back to his plate, then paused. He sniffed. Turning slowly to his other side, he found Blake already staring at him. He raised an eyebrow, and after a long moment, she nodded, reaching up to adjust her bow. It would have looked entirely casual to any observer, but Riku caught the slight movement of the fabric before she even touched it. So, Blake was a Faunus, and evidently hiding it—perhaps because of the same sort of bullying that Velvet apparently faced. She wore the bow to conceal what were, undoubtedly, some kind of animal ears.

“So, where is it you said you were from, Riku?” asked one of Ren’s teammates. Pyrrha, a girl with long red hair.

“Destiny Islands,” he replied. “It’s a tropical archipelago; most of our families lived on the larger island, and then on the surrounding islands were outposts, lighthouses, and so on. There was even one island, the closest, that was specifically for kids to play on. We would spend every day of the whole summer there,” he reminisced happily for a moment, before his expression darkened.

Halcyon though those times seemed now, at the time he had been plagued by restlessness. He had known there were other worlds— _known_ for certain since Terra had come and gone when Riku was only five, and believed for longer still—and wanted desperately to escape what had felt like a prison surrounded by water. Ten years later, he had been so determined to get away, he had convinced his best friends that they could somehow escape their world on a log raft, equipped with three mushrooms, two coconuts, three fish, a seagull egg, and a bottle of water…

“Riku?”

He blinked. The memories had overtaken him. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Nora asked what you were planning to do today,” Pyrrha filled in gently. Her orange-haired teammate nodded enthusiastically.

Riku shrugged, taking a sip of coffee. “Professor Ozpin mentioned some kind of assessment so that I can take missions while I’m here. It’ll be a way to repay the hospitality, so I can hardly decline.”

“Well, perhaps you can find out after breakfast while we attend class,” Weiss put in. It sounded like a polite suggestion…though the tone told them all she wished Riku were elsewhere.

“I think I will, thank you,” he told Weiss, without a trace of irony. “What kind of classes do you take?”

It was Ruby who answered. “Grimm Studies, History, Geopolitics, Combat…the usual stuff, y’know?”

Riku blinked. That was _usual stuff_?

“So uh…are you like, joining a team or something?” asked JNPR’s leader, a blond boy named Jaune. He almost sounded like he expected to be replaced.

“That…wasn’t mentioned,” Riku replied. It would feel odd joining either team, much as he liked them. He was too used to working autonomously, or with Sora, whom he’d known forever. “I wouldn’t think so, though; I’m not going to be here forever, so there wouldn’t be any sense in messing up your team dynamics.”

* * *

Riku had finished eating, and got up to head to Ozpin’s office and get out of everyone’s hair. There was a scrambling sound behind him, and he realized he really shouldn’t have been surprised when he saw that Ruby, too, had bounded to her feet.

“Don’t you have class?” he asked her pointedly as they left the cafeteria.

“Psshhhh,” Ruby scoffed. “I can make it there and back easy.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep!” Ruby boasted. “I’m really fast!”

“Wanna make it a race then?” Riku asked. It was the sort of bet he would have made with Sora. Without waiting for an answer, he broke into a jog.

“Wh-” Ruby sputtered. Then she shouted, “You’re on!” and caught up almost immediately.

Riku slowly increased his speed, moving faster and faster toward a complete run, but Ruby was keeping up easily. Finally, in the end stretch, he drew on his heart’s power, thinking that it would be a good test to see how well-recovered he was after his longer-than-usual night’s rest. He surged forward, taking the lead. 

Then he almost overbalanced as the wind suddenly blew past him, a storm of flower petals nearly blinding him. Steadying himself, he saw Ruby standing at the headmaster’s door, waving back at him and smiling in a self-satisfied way.

“You’re really fast!” she exclaimed when Riku touched down next to her, and he had to laugh.

“You say that, but you left me in the dust!” he said, laughing.

“Well _duh_ ,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “I told you I was fast; you were crazy to try to race me. But you did really good!”

“I guess the score’s 0-1, then. We’ll have to have another competition sometime. Maybe one that I stand a chance of winning.” Still chuckling, Riku knocked on the door and was told to enter.

Ozpin was once again behind his desk, but he was joined this morning by a severe-looking blonde woman with spectacles and what looked like a riding crop on her hip. She didn’t look up when they entered, being preoccupied with some sort of device in her hands, though she did nod in acknowledgement of Ruby’s greeting.

“Thank you for escorting our friend, Miss Rose. Now, I believe you have a class starting shortly?” Professor Ozpin reminded her gently.

“Oh! Right! Bye Professors! See ya, Riku!” And with another flurry of flower petals, she was gone. Riku caught one of the petals. Rose, not sakura. That was good. If they _had_ been cherry blossom, coupled with the giant scythe, he would have been convinced that she really was connected to Marluxia, somehow.

“How are you finding our Beacon, Riku?” Ozpin asked him.

“Interesting,” Riku replied, honestly. 

“No doubt,” Ozpin smiled. He picked up an elaborate-looking coffeepot poured a fresh mug. “Coffee?” Seeing no reason to refuse, Riku took the cup. “There is cream and sugar on the table over there,” the Professor added, indicating the desk by the window where the pot had stood the night before.

Riku, however, simply sipped at the coffee black. It was excellent. “You certainly have a unique…group of students, Headmaster,” Riku commented politely.

“No need to stand on formality, Riku,” Ozpin said mysteriously. “As I told you, your Mark of Mastery indicates that you should be treated as an adult. On this world, as the equivalent of a Huntsman.”

“Are you serious, Ozpin?” Now the woman spoke up, tossing back a long blonde curl and looking Riku up and down with an extremely critical eye. Riku promptly glared back, disliking her attitude toward him at once. “I can’t sense any Aura from him at all. He doesn’t even carry a weapon.”

Why were these people so hung up on the fact that he didn’t parade his weapon for everyone to see? Riku grit his teeth, willing himself not to say anything rude. Ozpin had asked him to respect the teachers while staying here. This could easily be a test to see if he would do so—Ozpin seemed the type.

“Quite serious, yes,” Ozpin said calmly. “Don’t worry, you will have the chance to test him for yourself…though I should think you would be able to accept my thoughts with as much weight as your own observations.” He shook his head, turning back to the boy before him. “Riku, this is Professor Glynda Goodwitch, the teacher of our Combat class. I believe your friends in Team RWBY and Team JNPR have that class this afternoon?” he glanced at the woman, who nodded curtly. “Well, then I think that will be a splendid time for the assessment we agreed upon. That is, if you are feeling up to it?”

“Yes, sir,” Riku responded at once. “I had a good night’s rest, for once, and I’m well on my way to recovered.”

“Very well, then. You may have until lunchtime to peruse our library and prepare for your assessment.” He indicated a building across the courtyard, which Riku assumed was the library. “Rest assured, however; this will not be a pen-and-paper test. Meet with your friends for lunch, and accompany them to their Combat class. If I may make a suggestion, you may wish to spend the morning familiarizing yourself with what we call Aura.”

“Aura?” Riku repeated.

“Briefly, it is the manifestation of our soul’s force,” Ozpin explained briefly. “It serves as our guide and our shield and our strength. With training, Aura can be discovered to manifest itself in a manner unique to the wielder…as perhaps you found when you attempted to win a footrace against Miss Rose.” Riku nodded, setting down his empty mug, and Ozpin inclined his head as well. “You may go.”

As the door closed behind him, he heard Ozpin say, “I know he looks a child, Glynda, but I urge you to take him seriously.” The woman sighed, and Riku had to smirk. Whatever Ozpin said, she _wouldn’t_ take him seriously, that was for certain. And until she did, he would make her regret it.

* * *

His research in the library did not tell him much more than Ozpin had, even after several hours. Aura was the force of one’s soul, borne outward by training and force of will into a tangible presence. Training one’s Aura involved deflecting attacks, healing damage, or empowering one’s body and weapons. Curiously, it did not sound like the training he had undergone in either the Dark or the Light; neither Maleficent nor Yen Sid had ever made reference to strengthening his _soul_ , only his heart. He could only surmise they were different things. 

Well, that certainly explained why he had been so shocked by the strengths Team RWBY had displayed yesterday: to his practiced eye, they looked like no more than ordinary citizens—good folk, certainly; no more darkness in their hearts than most, and their light shining strong—but certainly not combat-trained in the way he was familiar with. Though, for that matter, he probably appeared the same to them, never having trained his soul for combat.

Still, he could hardly learn to train his soul in the time he had left before the assessment, so he would have to continue to rely on his heart. Stymied in his studies, he left the library and found himself sitting by a fountain. He lay down on the rim of it, simply drifting to recover his strength as best he could, trailing one hand in the water and staring up at the blue, blue sky.

“Hey, Riku!” 

Sitting up, he saw Ruby dashing toward him. For once, she reminded him more of Kairi than Sora, stumbling to a halt as her team followed more sedately. “Hello, Ruby. Ready for lunch?”

Weiss stalked by, sniffing, and Jaune glanced from him to her uncertainly before following. Pyrrha rolled her eyes, waving before she followed her partner.

“How did you spend your morning?” Blake asked.

“Yeah, what did Professor Ozpin want to tell you?” Yang added.

“Studying Aura in the library for a while; and to let me know that my assessment would be today,” Riku answered them in order. “After lunch, I’m supposed to join you in class.”

“Ohhh, we have Combat today!” Ruby exclaimed. “I bet Professor Ozpin wants you to spar to see how strong you are!”

“Must be something like that,” he agreed. He saw no need to spoil the surprise of exactly who he was apparently fighting. Blake gave him a sharp look, but he merely smirked.

“Well, _I_ wouldn’t mind fighting you,” Yang declared, cracking her knuckles. “I’ve got a feeling you’re tougher than you look.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Riku asked, grinning and giving Yang a playful shove.

Yang shoved him back, hard enough that he stumbled and fell into the fountain. “That you look like a total _pushover_.”

Everyone groaned at the pun, but Riku burst unexpectedly into laughter for the second time that day. These sisters were something else.

* * *

Lunch passed quickly, Riku chatting mostly with Blake about the nature of Aura and the soul, though Pyrrha chimed in occasionally. Soon enough it was time to head to class. Riku followed the girls sedately, hands folded behind his head.

“So you, uh…didn’t know what Aura is?” Jaune had fallen in beside him, hands in his pockets.

“No,” Riku agreed easily. “It’s not something I was ever taught.”

“Oh.” Jaune seemed to hesitate a moment, then said, “If you want to learn, Pyrrha and I could probably help you. She’s been training me to use my Aura.”

“Thanks, Jaune. I’d like that.” It was always a good idea to get stronger. “If I turn out to be any good at it, maybe I can teach my friends when I get back home.”

They filed into the Combat classroom, which was built like a small coliseum, with raised seats surrounding a battle arena. Ms Goodwitch stood in the center of the arena, and wasted no time calling down two students to spar. 

Curiously, when they stepped in, both their faces appeared on screens hanging over the ring, along with a green bar which depleted as they took hits. When one of the bars reached halfway, it turned yellow; then at less than a quarter, it turned red, at which point Goodwitch called the match, pronouncing the other Combatant the victor.

“What’s that bar?” he asked Blake, who was nearest.

“An approximation of each fighter’s Aura. Halting the match with a little remaining prevents too many injuries,” she explained, glancing at him. Under cover of Goodwitch calling two more students to fight, she added, “You know, you seemed to know who you were expected to fight today.”

“You really want me to spoil the surprise?” She gave him a _Look_ , but he just smiled. “Professor Ozpin might have given me a hint…” He let his eyes flick toward Goodwitch. Blake’s intake of breath told him that she caught it.

“Then you should know, her weapon is that crop she carries,” Blake said in a hurried whisper. “and her Semblance is-” 

Riku held up a hand to stop her. “She doesn’t know anything about me except what she’s observed, and I don’t know anything other than that about her. This should be a fair assessment.”

“Very honorable of you, Riku,” said a voice directly behind them. Blake gasped, but Riku did far more—he sprang from his seat in a backflip, over the intruder, with his Keyblade materializing in his hand even as he swung his arm to strike. Way To The Dawn crashed against a narrow white rod as Riku landed, two rows behind where he had been sitting…and realized that he had just attacked Professor Ozpin.

Ozpin had remained seated, holding his cane over his head with one hand, and showing no effort as he held Way To The Dawn at bay. “Ah, forgive me, I didn’t mean to startle you so,” he said calmly. “I admit, I was curious enough to come see your assessment myself.”

Riku dismissed the Keyblade, but walked down the stairs to the protective rail rather than return to his seat. The prior match had ended just after Ozpin appeared, which implied that Riku was next. Goodwitch looked past him, presumably at Ozpin, then nodded to Riku, who vaulted the railing and landed lightly on his feet across from the blonde teacher.

“Class, this is Riku, a guest of Professor Ozpin’s who is auditing this class as a favor to the headmaster.” Many heads flicked to Ozpin, who waved in acknowledgement without removing his gaze from Riku. “As such, he will be participating in an exhibition spar.”

“Against whom, Professor?” called a voice he thought was Pyrrha’s.

Goodwitch sighed again. “Against myself.”

Murmurs broke out all around the stands, but Goodwitch ignored them. “Do you need to visit our locker room to prepare, young man?” she asked him. Her voice was…not condescending exactly, but certainly not brimming with confidence on his behalf, either.

Riku shook his head. “Ready when you are.”

“Very well.” She put away the device she was always holding, drew her crop instead, and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Let the match begin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : Did you really expect Ozpin to be straightforward about anything? Or for him to bother coming up with alternative accommodations for Riku when there’s a perfectly-functional co-ed dorm he could stay in? Yes, it’s a little silly, I suppose, but you’re just going to have to accept it with the suspension of disbelief.  
> He can’t have a room to himself because he doesn’t have a team; it would be a waste of space. He could theoretically stay with any full team, but there aren’t any spare beds and RWBY is the only team that he knows…plus Ruby is eager to take him in. There, handwaved it for you.
> 
> Quote from Kairi’s message-in-a-bottle, which Riku and Sora find floating in the sea in the Dark Margin at the end of KHII.
> 
> Sorry-not-sorry about the cliffhanger ending…though since the next chapter is already posted, it’s not much of a cliffhanger anyway. 
> 
> (Originally started 04/24/2015).


	4. Assessments

The screens flickered to life above the arena at Goodwitch’s command. Her own face appeared on the left, along with a green Aura bar, while Riku’s screen simply held his name and a silhouette. There was no bar to indicate his Aura.

As he and Goodwitch squared off, glaring each other down, Riku vaguely heard Ozpin explaining that Riku’s Aura was not displayed because he lacked something called a Scroll. Even if he had one, though, Riku wasn’t sure what the screen might display. His soul’s Aura was untapped; he only protected himself with the strength of his arms and his heart. Sliding into a ready stance, with his off-hand held forward and strong hand ready to summon the Keyblade at a moment’s notice, Riku analyzed his opponent. Meeting the blonde teacher’s eye, it was plain that however reluctant she was to fight him, once the battle started she would give no quarter. Riku, then, would have to fight just as ruthlessly…

Apparently tiring of the standoff, Goodwitch flicked her crop at him, and Riku found himself flying backward. It was like an Aero spell, except that there was no wind at all; his entire body simply…moved at her command. _Fascinating._

Riku kicked himself into a flip, so that his feet hit the wall first, and he launched himself back toward Goodwitch. She swung the crop again, but he dove forward into a roll. A piece of the floor rose up behind him, then shot directly for him. _So she can move anything with her mind. Amazing._

He skipped backward, letting the chunk of stone impact in front of him, then hopped up onto it as it rose again. He put some force behind his next leap, causing the fragment to crash back to the floor as he was launched into the air. As expected, Goodwitch raised her crop as if to swat at him, no doubt planning to push him away again with her power. Rather than give her the chance, Riku summoned Way To The Dawn, which appeared in his hand in a swirl of light and shadow. Wasting no time, he threw it fluidly, making it spin end over end toward the surprised teacher. She swiped her crop to the side instead, banishing the Keyblade to the far side of the arena, but it vanished. She looked up again to find it securely back in Riku’s hand, wound back for a mighty blow, and Riku himself now too close to push back or avoid. She raised the crop defensively instead, and the Keyblade crashed against it with such force that the floor cracked around her feet.

Taking advantage of his cancelled momentum, Riku lashed out with a foot and caught her directly on the chin. He continued into a backflip, and landed lightly on his feet with the keyblade held before him once more. The crowd had gone utterly silent. Goodwitch got back to her feet, dusting herself off, looking no worse for the wear, but out of the corner of his eye, Riku thought he saw a tiny fraction of her Aura bar disappear.

Another gesture with the crop brought up a veritable hailstorm of rocks and debris, which swirled about each other before hurtling toward him. Riku raised his left hand, calling up one of the few powers he could still rely on— _Dark Shield_. A magic wall composed of bluish hexagons glimmered into life before him, taking the impact of the shrapnel. 

As the last stone bounced away, he dropped the barrier and hurled the Keyblade once more. Again it was deflected, but Riku took the opportunity to charge, kicking up clouds of dust with each step. Way To The Dawn materialized in his hand yet again as he closed on Goodwitch, who this time took the first melee swing. Riku caught it, and the subsequent three, on the shaft of the Keyblade before beginning to return attacks in earnest. He struck out high and low, but met the crop each time. He wouldn’t have imagined that such a weapon would be so sturdy, or that its wielder—who clearly preferred to fight at a distance—would be so proficient hand-to-hand, but she was at least as skilled a fencer as he was, and had several inches’ height advantage over him.

Deflecting her last strike upward, Riku dropped to the floor and attempted to sweep her legs. Goodwitch, however, simply slid one foot back, and used the other to stamp on his ankle. Ignoring the pain ratcheting up his leg, Riku brought the Keyblade around quickly, hoping to hit either leg or perhaps break off her high-heel, but she jumped away.

Riku got back to his feet slowly this time, favoring his leg, and watching Goodwitch carefully for a hint of her next move. She met his eye, and he thought there was a glimmer of respect there now. She pushed her glasses up, in what he was coming to realize was a rather characteristic gesture, before she whipped the crop around to point at him directly. He felt her power seize him once more, but rather than throw him, she began to lift him up in a controlled way. He struggled, but there was nothing to struggle _against_. Desperate, he flung the Keyblade yet again, but she froze it in midair too. Riku called it back and threw it several more times, but it always stopped only a few feet away from him.

Leaving the Keyblade hovering where it was, Riku drew more deeply on his power, and flexed it against his invisible restraints. He felt them give, then break, as he fell back to the ground. Way To The Dawn dropped with him, but stopped before it hit the ground. The Keyblade then turned and began to swipe at him, as though of its own accord. Scowling, Riku backpedaled around the arena, skipping and ducking around his own weapon. Calling it back wouldn’t help; it would just twist in his grip and strike him. He needed to break her hold on it.

He tried leading it toward her, so that he could duck a swing that would then hit her, but the Keyblade kept positioning itself between them, so that he couldn’t. Finally, he raised his right arm, reinforcing it with a Dark Shield to catch the Keyblade and hold it still. His left palm stabbed out underneath his upraised arm, to point directly at his foe, who was concentrating on trying to break through his barrier. _Dark Aura_. A flurry of dark-blue projectiles, like balls or dark flames, fired from his palm, and scattered to converge on Goodwitch.

She released her hold on Way To The Dawn to whirl her crop in a circular motion. Each fireball crashed into the one beside it, in a circle that followed the crop’s swing, until at last the conglomeration of dark fire impacted the ground. Ghostly black flames seemed to shimmer in the air for a moment before they dissipated in a blur like a heat haze. Goodwitch, who hadn’t known the properties of those flames, was shocked to find Riku not across the arena as she had seen, but bearing down on her. 

The haze from the Dark Aura distorted the perception of time, whether it hit directly or not. Riku had taken the opportunity to call Way To The Dawn back to his hand the instant her power released it, and begun another charge. This time, she couldn’t get the crop up in time, and he unleashed a powerful combination of attacks, striking at her arms, legs, and stomach, before she was finally able to interpose her weapon.

Riku, somewhat stunned himself at the jarring impact her crop had made, felt the Keyblade torn from his grasp. The crop lashed against him just as the Keyblade had hit her, and each strike felt like a blow from the Nobody Lexaeus’ massive tomahawk, Skysplitter. Desperately, Riku recalled Way To The Dawn yet again, but rather than dodge backwards as most would have expected, he dropped into a forward roll, which brought him up inside his opponent’s guard. Striking hard at her wrist, he tried to force her to release the crop, but did not pause in his attack to see if he had been successful. Instead, he brought the Keyblade back around sharply to hammer at her flank, then spun on his heel, crouching, to slash at her thigh. Goodwitch staggered, and Riku hurried to press his advantage.

As he swung yet again, the Keyblade suddenly slowed, as though it was moving through molasses. Riku planned to release it, then recall it again, but he couldn’t make his fingers open. His eyes jerked to his opponent, and he saw that Goodwitch still held the crop, which was pointed at his back. The weight of gravity seemed to be increasing sharply, and Riku fell to his knees as she bore down on him. He wouldn’t be able to dive away or throw the Keyblade from here. He needed to stand up again, somehow, but his arms were too heavy now to even lift, and the weight increased still further, determined to bind him to the ground.

With a heave, Riku managed to lift one of his knees enough to get one of his feet back under him. A moment later, the other. The weight pressing him into the floor appeared to double, then triple, but Riku forced his head up, glaring at Goodwitch with his dignity intact. After a moment, and with an almighty effort, he began to force his way back to a standing position. She bore down on him, a fierce scowl on her own face, her crop held out and slightly downward, as though she were pressing it against him. As he forced his way back up, he saw the end of the crop twitch sympathetically. The arena began to crack beneath his feet.

“Enough.”

The voice—Ozpin’s voice—came quietly from the stands, but the pressure on Riku vanished at once. Riku, unprepared for the sudden change, ended up leaping nearly to the level of the screens. He dismissed the Keyblade in midair, and spun into a roll as he hit the ground to dissipate his unexpected momentum.

“Are you injured, Riku?” Ozpin was now in the arena with them, though Riku hadn’t seen him move. He really needed to keep a closer eye on the slippery headmaster.

In answer, Riku shook out the ankle Goodwitch had stomped on, then shook his head instead, standing up tall. Goodwitch, meanwhile, glanced up at her own Aura meter on the screen, showing it just above half. _Damn._ He hadn’t even knocked her out of the green. She wiped a hand across her brow, then returned her crop to her belt and pushed up her glasses.

“Well fought, young m— Riku,” she corrected herself.

“Likewise, Professor,” he replied quietly.

Goodwitch raised her voice to address the silently-watching students. “That is all for today. Class dismissed.”

“Accompany me to my office, please; both of you,” Ozpin said. Both of them nodded, and followed him out.

* * *

Back in the headmaster’s office, Ozpin settled himself in his chair, and turned to face Goodwitch, who had collapsed into one of the chairs opposite rather than stand as she usually did.

“Well, Glynda?” he prompted her.

Goodwitch sighed, but said, not-quite-grudgingly, “If this is how…Riku…fights against an intelligent opponent, in a battle he knows in his mind cannot be life-threatening, I cannot doubt that he is fully prepared to both battle Grimm and protect peace as a Huntsman should.”

Ozpin hummed in acknowledgement, then turned to Riku, who had remained standing as usual. “And Riku, I am curious, what would you have done had I not called the an end to the match when I did?”

“Raised my weapon arm to make her concentrate on it, then used the resulting downward force to slash at the floor and crack the stone to upset her balance,” he answered without hesitation.

Another hum. “You certainly do show a penchant for thinking clearly under pressure. Your attacks and movements all demonstrate an excellent understanding of the capabilities of both your body and your weapon. Do I guess correctly, also, that you have still more tricks up your sleeve?”

Riku considered the question for a moment, wondering if, and how, he should answer. Finally, he decided on unvarnished, but unelaborated truth. “Absolutely.” He hadn’t made any particularly special movements, for instance, and there were always plenty more improvised combinations to use.

“You’re also very fast, and you hit extremely hard,” Goodwitch added, smiling ruefully. “I would not be eager to battle you without a full Aura.”

“I could say the same for your strikes,” Riku rubbed at his shoulder, which one of her crop’s hammer-blows had nearly dislocated, and shifted his weight away from his injured foot.

The movement was not lost on Ozpin. “I will ask once more, now that we are no longer surrounded by your peers. Are you injured, particularly in any way that will require medical attention? We have an excellent infirmary.”

Riku shook his head to the question again. “I’ll be bruised and sore until I can sleep. By morning I will be fully recovered.”

“I will schedule your first mission for next week, then. It may take me a little time to create a full Hunting registration for you, but it shouldn’t be terribly difficult. The word of myself, plus Glynda, should be sufficient to convince most people.”

“And the rest of the teachers who were watching?” Riku asked, half-smiling. There had been at least three other strong presences nearby during the match, according to the metric he was learning to judge Aura by.

Ozpin smiled back. “Their word, too, will be sought if needed. Here,” he reached into a drawer of the desk and removed one of the devices Goodwitch was always fiddling with. “This is a Scroll for your personal use. It allows communication, research, and acts as a keycard to allow access to areas restricted from the public. I recommend you take some time to familiarize yourself with the interface before you need to use it in earnest. For now, however, I recommend you go and reassure your friends that you are not injured, nor in any trouble.”

He smiled fondly at the end, and Riku found that he was doing likewise. He sketched a bow. “Thank you, Headmaster.”

* * *

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Teams RWBY and JNPR were all waiting for him just outside the breezeway which led to Ozpin’s office. 

“Why didn’t you tell us you were going to fight our _teacher_?” Pyrrha’s question was first in the deluge.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were _strong enough_ to fight our teacher?” Yang demanded.

“You pressed her hard, too. I’ve literally never seen a Huntress sweat,” said Ruby. “I used to think they got some kind of special training.”

“How’s your Aura after that fight? Some of those whipstrikes looked nasty…” Jaune was biting his lip.

“One at a time,” Riku laughed. “Pyrrha: I wasn’t ordered to keep my assessment a secret, exactly, but it was definitely hinted that I would be fighting the teacher, so I didn’t want to rub anybody’s faces in it. Yang: I didn’t _know_ I was, that was the point of the test. Jaune: I told you guys earlier, I don’t know how to use Aura. I still don’t really understand what it is, much less how to use it. Like Ozpin said, I don’t even have one of those Scroll devices that measure Aura, though I don’t think it would do much right now.” Catching the consternation on Jaune’s face, he added, “I hope that offer stands to teach me about Aura, Jaune. After seeing it in action today, I definitely want to know more.”

Jaune flushed, but nodded.

“So like…how strong _are_ you?” Nora asked, poking at his bicep. 

Riku just shrugged. “How do you measure something like that?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m still alive. I count that as being strong enough. And Professor Ozpin said he’d assign me a mission next week, so I must have done well enough for him to be satisfied.”

“You _definitely_ have to come train with us sometime,” said Ruby, decisively, grabbing his hand.

“Us too, us too!” Nora cheered, seizing the other arm. Yang, Ren, and Pyrrha all agreed, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Weiss, who had hung back through this whole explanation, finally flounced away. Riku frowned, watching her go, then gently detached himself from Nora and Ruby. “Sorry, but I need to deal with this,” he told them. “I’ll see you guys at dinner.”

* * *

“Weiss.”

The girl didn’t look around as he approached her, where she was seated on a bench, glaring out over the city of Vale. He sat down, and she turned away very pointedly, plainly preparing to leave.

“Look, I get that you don’t necessarily trust me, and you know, that’s fine. I’m not Sora; I don’t expect to be super-best friends with every single person I meet, but why do you have such an _attitude_ when I’m around?” Riku snapped. “You’re acting like you expect me to take away your teammates.”

“Aren’t you doing just that?” Weiss shot back. “You appeared out of nowhere with a ridiculous story about being from another world; next thing we know you’re sleeping in our room and taking on our teachers! My teammates and our friends and even the staff can’t get enough of you, and now you’re slated to go out alone on a mission that’s meant for a team of four!?” She finished, panting and glaring at him.

“Weiss…” he said softly, eyes shut. “You need to let go of those feelings.”

“ _What?_ ” she asked in a dangerous voice.

Riku shook his head. “Envy. Fear. Anger. All the emotions that darken the heart. There’s some of that in everybody, but you can’t let them control you. The Heartless will draw out those feelings and if you don’t fight it, the darkness will consume you. Trust me, I know.” The raw pain in his voice made even Weiss hesitate. “I’m not trying to come between you and your friends, Weiss. I’ve been trying since I arrived here to _not_ be a burden to you, most especially _because_ you were all so kind to me. It’s left me between a rock and a hard place.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, voice wavering between sternness and genuine curiosity.

“You want me to leave. That’s understandable. It would make you happier if I were gone.” She opened her mouth, but he just shook his head. “Don’t deny it. I’m not offended. But think, Weiss. If I disappeared like you wanted, how would Ruby react?”

Weiss was silent for a moment. When she spoke, her tone was defensive, but Riku knew he had gotten through to her. “Why do you even care?”

“Because Ruby’s my friend,” he said, simply. “And yours. And believe it or not, I count you one of mine, Weiss.”

She scoffed, but it sounded a bit watery.

Riku sighed. He looked out over the city. “You grew up feeling separated from everyone else, right?” She blinked at the change of subject, but he continued without giving her time to respond. “Told that you were different, or special, or better; it was implied or you were outright told that you deserved attention. That you deserved _more_. Right?”

“How did you-?”

“I know the feeling. Maybe the situations weren’t exactly the same, but I grew up feeling that way a lot of the time. Even my closest friends couldn’t break through, not entirely; they could never do or see everything that I did. I recognized the potential beyond our world before they did, and I was never able to be content living out my life on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere.” His gaze rose to the sky. “More than anything, more even than my being with my friends, I wanted to escape from that life. I wanted to explore other worlds. I wanted to be _free_. And I found myself doing drastic things. Terrible things. My friends forgave me…but I’ve never been able to forgive myself.” He looked at her, a bittersweet smile twisting his lips. “You don’t want to go down that road, Weiss. Not while you have a chance to get away from it.”

Weiss said nothing. She just stared at him, her left hand coming up to rest on the scar that crossed her left eye. He didn’t comment; it seemed like a habitual movement more than a conscious one.

“And suddenly, you’re finding that those voices and thoughts you grew up with clash with what you’re seeing now,” he guessed. “Take it from me…trust your friends and your own observations and yourself over any voice from your past. If you can’t…” A note of self-disgust crept into his voice. “It will haunt you the rest of your days.”

Riku got to his feet and walked away. Weiss remained where she sat for a long while, staring after him.

* * *

Riku was sitting on the edge of Beacon Cliff, looking out over a forest that appeared to consist only of red leaves, when he heard a soft step behind him. He tensed, but he was downwind, and a familiar scent drifted on the breeze, making him relax again. Blake.

“Good afternoon,” he called out, without looking around. “This forest is very pretty. What are these trees called?”

“That’s the Forest of Forever Fall,” Blake answered. “I’m not an expert on trees, however.” Riku chuckled.

Blake remained silent for a moment, then moved to sit beside him. “You fought well today,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” he smiled. “And, since I don’t think I said it before, thank you for trying to help me earlier.”

“You turned out not to need it,” she commented.

“Actually, it would have informed my entire attack strategy if I had known from the start that she could move things with her mind,” he countered. “But you don’t always have all the information going into a battle, and keeping my mind sharp enough to think on my feet is important too.”

Blake nodded, watching the wind blow the sea of red leaves below them.

“So what’s hidden under the bow?” Riku asked. She looked at him sharply, and he shrugged. “If it’s not too personal a question,” he stipulated. “I don’t mean to be offensive, I’m just curious.”

Blake watched him a moment longer, apparently judging his sincerity again, before reaching up and untying the bow. Small, pointed black cat’s ears poked through her mane of black hair. They twitched slightly at being freed from the bow.

“Cute,” he thought…then noticed her blush and realized he had said it out loud. He bit his lip hard to keep a straight face as she hurriedly re-tied the bow. “I’m not about to tell anyone, you know,” he assured her. “My friends’ secrets are mine.”

“…Thank you,” she said, after a moment. “For both your promise and your…comment.” 

Riku merely nodded, still trying his best to keep his face clear, because the girl was seriously adorable when she was flustered.

She heaved a sigh. “I hide them because I used to belong to a Faunus rights protest group, which later turned to violence. I left because I disagreed with the new direction, and decided that my best chance to fight the prejudice against Faunus was to become a Huntress.”

Riku pondered this, vaguely registering the footsteps of a large group approaching. It was probably the rest of the friends he had left behind. The Faunus… He really needed to take some time in the library to read about the Faunus; they seemed to be a historical target of systematic oppression, which was a breeding ground for darkness on both sides. As for Blake herself… “I think that’s very noble. You certainly have my support.”

Blake stared at him. He glanced at her, then shook his head. “I can’t very well discriminate against a race of sentient beings, which the Faunus plainly are. And I’m not in any position to ridicule anyone for past decisions, even if I wanted to.”

“What do you mean?” Blake asked.

Riku’s throat caught, but he made himself continue. “When I was little, a visitor came to our world from outside, and told me that one day I would get to travel the worlds myself. Ten years later, I was so desperate to leave that I opened my heart to the darkness, and willingly gave it a foothold in my world so long as I could escape.” He laughed bitterly. “I got my wish—I opened the Door and found myself in another world, and was even assured that my two best friends had made it off the Islands too… What I didn’t allow myself to realize was that I had doomed the rest of my world to be completely consumed by the darkness.”

Blake inhaled sympathetically. 

Riku continued in a toneless voice, still staring out over Forever Fall. “My best friend Sora found himself in possession of a Keyblade, and began to fight the darkness, the Heartless, and those who sought to use both. Meanwhile, in an attempt to continue getting my own selfish way, I joined with those same darkness users, and clashed with Sora repeatedly. I even stole his Keyblade for a time, since it had originally been intended for me, and his allies, who were under orders to follow the Key. My lowest point came when I was defeated yet again, and I opened my heart still further to the dark—and found myself possessed by a Heartless seeking to darken and consume the Heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. All I could do was watch as the Seeker of Darkness used me like a puppet, trying to kill my best friend and destroy every world there was.”

There was a sniff behind him. Riku glanced around, and saw tears in Ruby’s eyes. Nora had her face buried in Ren’s shoulder, and Jaune seemed to be standing rather close to Pyrrha. Weiss, standing at the back, had her head bowed so that her bangs shadowed her eyes.

“In the end, I seized one final chance for redemption,” he continued the story, for everyone’s benefit. “When the Seeker of Darkness opened the doorway between the Light and Dark realms, I helped Sora to seal it closed once more…from the Dark side.”

“You sealed yourself in the…Dark Realm?” Blake asked.

Riku shook his head. “What right did I have to walk in the Light any longer?” he asked rhetorically. “I had made my bed, and I was determined to lie in it. It wasn’t until over a year later, during which I roamed throughout the worlds of light, and dark, and those in between, that I learned to accept and somewhat control the darkness inside me. Even so, I planned to let myself fade away into the dark once I was certain that Sora was safe…but he wouldn’t let me disappear.”

He laid back onto the grass, gazing up at the sky with a peaceful air. “For all that I had always been the stronger and the faster of us, Sora has always had the stronger heart—strong enough to bring our lost world, and many others, back into the Light; strong enough even to forgive my betrayal, and drag _me_ however reluctantly, out of the twilight once and for all.”

Sensing that nobody was quite sure what to say in response to his story, Riku got to his feet, stretched, and said, “Anybody hungry? That fight took quite a bit out of me.”

Nora, rubbing frantically at her teary turquoise eyes, gave a watery chuckle. Ruby followed suit, then Jaune. Ren and Pyrrha smiled. Riku extended a hand to help Blake to her feet, and after staring at him for a moment, she took it. Her hand was shaking slightly, but her grip was firm, and warm. Weiss turned away, still hiding her face, but Riku’s sharp eyes saw a lacy handkerchief drawn from a pocket, and she fell in naturally when the group began to move instead of forging ahead or leaving. Together, the nine friends headed for the cafeteria, conversation slowly returning to normal between them.

* * *

“How much of that did you know?” Goodwitch asked, looking from the scroll propped on the table to the headmaster.

“Directly? None of it,” Ozpin admitted. “I could only guess at some of it, based on his behavior. Enough to want to know more, before reaching a decision.”

“A strong soul, most assuredly,” concurred Professor Port. “I should say the young man most definitely has the blood of a true Huntsman, whether he knows it yet or not.” Professors Peach and Oobleck nodded, the latter rather more rapidly. 

“Then I shall complete his commission forthwith,” Ozpin said firmly. “I think it only appropriate that he attend each of your classes during this coming week, before he attends a mission with one of you. After that, perhaps we may be able to rely on him to complete them by himself.”

Scattered grunts and noises of approval came from each of the teachers.

* * *

Dinner had swiftly restored the natural order—Nora eating breakfast food, Pyrrha putting away a bigger steak than Jaune, Ruby sneaking broccoli onto Weiss’ plate when she wasn’t looking. Nobody brought up what that Riku had told them until after everyone had gone to bed. Riku was staring up at the sky, listening to Ruby’s pretend snores fade into real ones, to Weiss’ teeth no longer grinding as her breathing slowed, to Yang beginning to mumble about cheesecake. He had assumed that Blake too was asleep, though she didn’t have any such obvious tells, when the curtain over him was drawn back.

Blake stood there, wrapped in her sleeping robe. Her eyes seemed almost to glow in the starlight. There was no moon tonight, but Riku’s time in the realm of darkness had affected him in many subtle ways—near-perfect night vision being one of them. Though the colors were a bit muted compared to daytime, he could easily pick out details as fine as the flower embroidered on her yukata.

They simply looked at each other for a long while, then Blake whispered, “You didn’t have to tell us that the story, today.”

“No,” Riku agreed.

There was another pause, then Blake let his side of the curtain drop, only to lift the other side and climb up onto the the bookshelf herself. She leaned against the opposite side of the window frame, folding her legs behind her demurely.

“You didn’t have to take off your bow, either,” Riku commented after a moment.

The bow in question twitched, and Blake smiled. “No, I suppose I didn’t,” she agreed. “All your adventures…they’re why you don’t sleep well, aren’t they?”

Riku shrugged, but nodded. Vaguely, Riku registered that one of the breathing patterns on Blake’s side of the window had changed—given he could still hear a tiny nose whistling, he surmised that it was Weiss who had awoken. She didn’t speak. There seemed no need to comment, and he didn’t think Blake’s comment merited further response, so a comfortable silence fell between them once more. After some time, it was Blake who broke it.

“I grew up outside the Kingdoms. It’s…not an easy life out there. You either sleep light or get your throat torn out by Grimm as you sleep. Most Huntresses wake easily, but I always feel there’s an element of paranoia missing from everyone else, which just comes to me naturally.”

Riku, smiling fondly, was thinking of his own best friend and sometime partner. Even today, after everything that had happened to them, Sora still slept as deeply and soundly as any civilian. Even while asleep, the Keyblade moved to defend him.

Blake tilted her head the other way. “On the other hand, I wouldn’t wish my upbringing on any of them, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything,” she added warmly.

“Don’t forget that they’ve had their own troubles,” Riku said fairly. “A cushy life doesn’t mean an easy childhood, and that’s assuming that you’ve got a whole and happy home.” He didn’t elaborate, and Blake didn’t press him.

“I suppose that’s true.” Blake sighed. “I guess it’s just difficult to imagine anyone else dealing with the same things that I have, but then again, it’s likely that everyone feels that way.”

“Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow,” Riku mused. “Hearts are not comparable; they have no metrics nor form of measure, because all of it is irreplaceable.”

A quick breath from behind Blake made both of them smile, but they continued to chat softly as if they hadn’t overheard. Eventually, Weiss appeared to fall back asleep, and when Blake began yawning Riku ordered her to bed. Though she rolled her eyes, she did get to her feet and stretch.

“Good night, then, Riku.” Her fingers brushed against him through the curtain as she crossed to her bed.

“Sleep well,” Riku murmured back. _At least one of us should…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : Hope the fight scene was all right. Yes, Riku basically lost, but I think I at least gave him a fighting chance in there for a while. Maybe more than he would have actually reasonably gotten from Goodwitch, if she hadn’t been going easy on him (at least to begin with). Still, he got his wish; he got some good hits in and he definitely made her regret underestimating him.
> 
> Personally, I place Riku somewhere between the students and teachers in power. He could probably take any of the individual trainees in a fair fight, but would need some kind of advantage, strong initiative, and a lot of luck to actually bring down a fully qualified Huntsman or Huntress. Additionally, note that I said he would beat _individual_ students. Put him up against a cooperative team, and he’s going down under sheer weight of numbers, if nothing else. (You know, the entire reason Hunters _have_ teams.)
> 
> The rest of the chapter was for building rapport. I don’t know if I’ll bother having characters go more in-depth into their pasts than this…mainly because it’s just rehashing canon and you guys already know canon. I only did it here because it let me have some decent character interactions and development. (Yes, development. This is how characters can act differently without being ‘out of character’. Whoo!)
> 
> The bit where Riku and Blake are talking by the window is about what's not said as much as what is. Riku, at least, is aware that Weiss is listening the whole time, and his choice of words reflects that. He's also unintentionally accurate when he mentions 'a whole and happy home', because he's talking about himself (intentionally vaguely) but the line can also apply to the sisters. Keep in mind that this is before any of the major events of RWBY Volume II (those are coming). It's only Riku's second day on Remnant, and the events of the story so far have all taken place between "Best Day Ever" and "Welcome To Beacon".) Obviously the first big plot event is "Painting The Town...", which is not likely to go down exactly as it did in canon.  
> Also, Riku’s final, wise saying before bed is actually paraphrased from Monty Oum’s Twitter.
> 
> Finally, if you pop over to my FFN profile page, you’ll see a link to a forum I constructed if readers want to interact with me about my stories. I haven’t had any takers yet, but I’d love to engage with you guys a little more publicly.


	5. Full Commission

Sure enough, Riku awoke with a start well before dawn, drenched in icy sweat. It wasn’t a prophetic or premonitory dream—those always felt rather different. This was an ordinary nightmare…though the image of Young Xehanort stealing Sora’s and Kairi’s hearts still seemed burned into his eyes.

Rather than get up, he stared out of the window for a while. Where was Sora now? Helping train Kairi? Out training himself? Preparing for his new Mark of Mastery test? If anyone was likely to find him here, it would be Sora, not necessarily for being the cleverest or even the most-travelled—though he probably _was_ the most travelled of their generation of warriors—but because of their hearts’ powerful connection. Sora’s heart wasn’t pure light like Kairi’s, but it was overwhelmingly strong. He had laid waste to all of DiZ’s carefully-laid revenge plans within days of reentering the action, simply by being himself. Having watched him from the shadows for as long as he had, Riku had to agree that even from a neutral perspective, Sora was truly a more worthy bearer for the Keyblade than he himself had ever been…and that was before taking into account what else was sleeping within Sora’s heart.

After a while, Riku pulled from his pocket the Scroll that Ozpin had given him, and began examining it. It was rather smaller than the one Goodwitch carried, but was designed the same way, with two pieces that collapsed somehow to conceal and protect the screen, locked by a simple yellow button. Within, the interface wasn’t terribly complex, and Riku was able to identify most of the major functions rather quickly: communications, either live or delayed, both by voice and text; identification, which displayed Riku’s name, face, and a fairly-accurate picture of his Keyblade, along with the words ‘Commissioned Huntsman’; a camera; a useful-looking research application that seemed to access some kind of information network; a map of Vale and the surrounding lands, complete with a blinking dot at his current location and a compass that spun as the device moved, and which Riku found he could annotate simply by touch; and vital and Aura monitoring—amusingly, Riku’s Aura appeared to be critically-red even though he was currently not in any danger.

Content that he now understood the Scroll somewhat, Riku checked the time, realized that it meant absolutely nothing to him since he was still unfamiliar with the day/night cycle on this world, and put the device away. Carefully muffling his steps, he managed to leave the room without waking even Blake, though he reflected that she rarely showed any difference between being awake or asleep, so if she had woken up when he moved, he might not have known.

It was too early for breakfast, and the Library appeared to be closed, so Riku found himself once more in the courtyard by the fountain. Deciding to get some practice in, he began warming up before calling Way To The Dawn and beginning to train in earnest. Reviewing the match against Goodwitch in his head, he began critiquing himself and devising ways to tighten up his form. His Dark Aura—curious that the name was similar to their soul’s Aura, but yet seemed utterly unrelated—had been slow to fire, and the Dark Shield he had conjured around his arm had barely stopped the Keyblade when it had been turned against him. Admittedly, the entire point of the Keyblade was to pierce the darkness, but he ought to have been able to hold it off; his own heart was not entirely dark, after all.

Spinning Way To The Dawn to a reverse-grip, Riku made several slashes, then mentally summoned the Keyblade to his left hand for a surprise stabbing motion. With a thought, it vanished once more to return to his main hand as he fell back into a ready stance, before launching into a new combo. This one ended on another move he had seen Sora use, a massive upward slash designed to knock enemies from their feet, and possibly airborne. He followed this up with a leap and downward stab. By calling up the power of his latent darkness, he could extend that particular attack, but he wanted to keep today’s practice purely physical. Wrenching the Keyblade from the ground, he dropped low for a kneecap-level slash before rising in a spin, ending on several stabbing motions at various heights.

Suddenly, a whistling noise cut through the battle-haze, and he spun on the spot, bringing the Keyblade up to block an enormous blade. He forced the point of the curved blade into the ground, laid his empty hand on the weapon’s haft, and used it as a fulcrum to deliver a punishing kick to the side of the assailant’s head…or at least, he tried to. The attacker also used the stationary haft to shift balance and neatly avoided the kick, reddish hair and short cape fluttering behind her as she did so… 

Riku blinked. “Ruby?”

“Good morning!” the girl chirped, wrenching the scythe from the ground and spinning it around herself. Riku skipped away to avoid being cut.

“That was dangerous, Ruby,” he said worriedly. “I was completely in the zone; I didn’t even realize it was you until my kick missed.”

Ruby frowned. “I’m not helpless, you know; I have Crescent Rose.”

“I didn’t say you were, but I really don’t like realizing that I’ve almost seriously hurt a friend.” Again. “ _Please_ don’t surprise me like that.”

“I’m sorry,” Ruby mumbled, abashed.

Sighing, Riku smiled and ruffled her hair. “Don’t sweat it. Nobody got hurt this time, so let’s couch it as a learning experience. What are you up to? I didn’t even notice that the sun had risen. It’s not breakfast time yet, is it?”

“Not quite,” Ruby shook her head, her good humor returning. “I was headed to the gym when I saw you.” She collapsed her weapon and holstered it. “Gotta get some time in on the treadmill.”

“Mind if I join you?” Riku asked. He hadn’t been to a true training facility since Olympus, and some factors could only be improved with proper equipment.

Ruby perked up, if possible, even more as she began to lead the way. “That’d be great! Nobody will ever come with me in the mornings; it’s usually just me and some professors. Sometimes this one Faunus girl comes in too, but I haven’t seen her in weeks.”

The gym was typical, and as Ruby mentioned, was occupied by two men that she identified as Professors Port and Oobleck. The former was a middle-aged man with an impressive moustache, pumping an equally-impressive amount of iron; the latter, a young and rather tall man with wild green hair, running easily on a treadmill at a ridiculous pace, occasionally sipping what was presumably coffee from a large thermos. Both nodded a greeting to the students. 

Ruby happily hopped onto the treadmill next to Oobleck’s, also increasing the speed to an absurd rate, and apparently keeping up easily. Riku, for his part, chose to make use of a set of parallel bars, though he struggled a bit compared to Sora’s old friend Hercules. Perhaps twenty minutes later, he was attempting to transition to a handstand position between the bars, when a buzzing noise and an odd tone came from his back pocket. It was also punctuated by strains of two different classical songs from the teachers’ directions. Both stopped what they were doing and withdrew their Scrolls, so Riku did the same.

The envelope image was blinking, so he touched it. A small picture of Professor Ozpin appeared, along with a very clipped message: _Report for briefing._

Sighing, Riku put the Scroll away and bade Ruby farewell—promising to return to the gym with her sometime—and followed the professors up to the headmaster’s office.

Goodwitch nearly sent him away when he arrived, actually stopping him at the door. He nearly had to shove his scroll under her nose, bearing the order to come, before she would step aside. Irritating. Hadn’t she had enough yesterday?

Shaking his head, Riku deliberately cast aside his bubbling resentment, brushing the encroaching darkness away from his heart. _He_ controlled the darkness, not the other way around anymore. Choosing again not to sit, he took up a position leaning against the wall beside the door, on the same side as the hinges, leaving just enough space that the door wouldn’t hit him if it were to be slammed open.

Ozpin stood across the room with his back to them, staring out the window as he leaned on his cane and sipped at his usual cup of coffee. When Goodwitch returned, giving Riku an odd look and closing the door with a snap, Ozpin turned at last.

“Thank you all for coming promptly,” he said, as if they hadn’t been waiting on him the last five minutes. “As most of you are no doubt aware, but our guest Riku may not be—the Vytal Festival is fast approaching. We are expecting a large influx of tourists, Riku, which as you might guess is something of a rarity in our world, so we want to make sure we are doing our level best to keep the city safe. Our Professors here will be making a circuit outside the walls to eliminate any Grimm too close for comfort; your mission, meanwhile, will be to sweep through the city itself and ensure that there are no…hostiles…that have cropped up and need to be dealt with. I do not expect there to be any danger you cannot cope with—this is merely a milk run to help you get to know the city. If you _should_ come across any hostiles, I trust you to capture or eliminate them at your own discretion.”

Riku nodded. 

“We are also expecting guests to the Academy to arrive later today, so please don’t be alarmed if you see airships approaching the school,” Ozpin added. Another nod. “Very well. The rest of you are more than familiar with your assigned quadrants. You are dismissed.”

Exiting, Riku couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been asked to come to the office for that ‘briefing’, when it would have been just as easy to send the information to his Scroll. As he was thinking this, the Scroll buzzed. He drew it back out, and noticed a new icon had appeared, which was shaking slightly. Tapping it, he saw details of what he had been assigned.

_MISSION: RECONNAISSANCE_  
_LOCATION: VALE_  
_OBJECTIVE: SWEEP CITY, CAPTURE OR ELIMINATE HOSTILES_

Riku threw his arms up in frustration, then headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast.

* * *

“I thought you said you were getting a mission _next week_ ,” Ruby complained for the tenth time.

“This is just a practice mission,” Riku repeated. “It’s just to help familiarize me with the city. Don’t mind me, you guys—this is your last day of classes this week, right?”

Ruby still pouted through most of breakfast at not being able to accompany Riku on his mission, though he wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go with him, or just wanted the chance to fight some more Heartless. He had to promise her a full-contact sparring session before she finally perked up again.

Everyone wished Riku luck as he left the cafeteria, even a stiff Weiss and a distracted-seeming Blake. Smiling, he wondered if this was how Sora felt on _every_ world he visited. _The sap_ , Riku thought fondly. 

He had to shove his scroll under the nose of an airship pilot, too, before the man would agree to give him a lift down to Vale ‘during a school day’. Not being taken seriously was getting old, fast. 

Even as they took off, Riku saw a small fleet of airships rapidly drawing nearer the school—presumably the guests that Professor Ozpin had mentioned. He memorized the symbol on the sides of the ships: some sort of spear vertically superimposed over…a gear? Eventually, however, Riku found himself making his way down the same street where he had first met Team RWBY. The café was empty, so he began retracing his steps toward where they had been jumped by the Heartless that night.

The streets were bright and plainly clear of hostiles, so he took to the back alleys, slipping into the shadow of a shop called _From Dust Till Dawn_. The alleyways of Vale were surprisingly rather wide and extensive. Pulling out his Scroll, he called up the map, and was surprised to not only find the alleys listed on the map, but that it was quite possible to navigate entire sections of the city without ever emerging onto the main roads. Resolving to do so, Riku began working his way West through the broadly-labeled ‘Commercial District’. He would sweep roughly counter-clockwise through the city, so as to end up back near Beacon at the end of his search.

* * *

Some hours later, Riku was both bored and hungry, though thankfully not lost due to the constantly-updated map. He had zigzagged through the ‘Industrial District’ and ‘Agricultural District’, and was now emerging back to a main road in order to cross the river into the final section, marked ‘Residential’. Once across, he took to the alleys once more, skirting what looked like a town square on the map.

The entire day’s search had been a wash—not a Heartless to be found. While this _was_ a good thing, overall, it made for an incredibly boring time. Riku was not rushing his search, unwilling to overlook anything, but he was looking forward to getting back up to the school for dinner. It had been most of the day since he had left, and he was regretting not borrowing some…Lien?…to buy food while he was in the city.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling, crunching sound, somewhere to the East. He sprinted to the end of the alley he was in, but couldn’t see another going the direction he wanted. Spotting a fire escape, Riku leapt for it, kicking off the wall. Way To The Dawn materialized in his hand mid-jump to catch the edge of the retractable ladder. Dragging it back to the ground, Riku mounted it swiftly and took to the roofs. 

There was a second loud noise, this one a tremendous crash, and Riku adjusted course to follow, closer to Southeast. He made a flying leap across an alley to a lower rooftop, rolled on landing, and came up still moving. There was a bit of dust—and what he thought might be wood splinters—still settling a few blocks away, close to due East. Oddly, the dust trail seemed to continue a short way from where the splinters were, in what he realized was probably the direction of the second crash.

Pausing at the edge of yet another building, he found his rooftop path blocked by the presence of a major road. He wouldn’t be able to leap across to the next building, so he slid down a nearby ladder, dropping the last six feet to the ground.

A large truck sat in the middle of the street, having clearly sustained some damage to its front. It looked to have collided with a pole, but there was nothing in the middle of the street for it to have hit. The roadway was also cracked and broken, but there was no sign of anything the truck could have impacted. There was a crowd of people around the truck, and Riku heard murmurs of, “How did she do that?” and “That was incredible!” as he ran past. Dashing into an alley that some passersby were staring down, two scents caught his attention. One he didn’t recognize, but the other seemed oddly familiar. A block later, the scent he thought he recognized grew strong enough to identify. It was roses, while the other was… _oil? grease? Some sort of mechanical lubricant, anyway._

Skidding to a stop before the next T-corner, he peered around the corner turning left. There, a head of orange hair topped with a pink bow was just visible over a red-cloaked shoulder.

“Ruby…” murmured a voice he didn’t know. “I’m not a real girl.”

Ruby’s answer was a slight intake of breath, followed by a simple, “Oh.”

* * *

“What’s this ‘special commission’ about, Ozpin?” demanded the visiting head of both the Academy and military of Atlas, James Ironwood, resplendent in his white General’s suit. “I know you like to march to your own tune, but I’ve checked every record I have available, and this ‘Riku’ has no history.”

“Everyone is entitled to a fresh start, James,” Ozpin said, maddeningly calmly. “It is not my place to reveal the secrets of another’s past.”

“The paperwork says he’s sixteen, Oz!” Ironwood exclaimed. “I’ve run his picture and description through every database there is. Nobody has ever seen or heard of him before, anywhere, which is simply _not possible_. How much of it was fabricated?”

“The current information on the commission is full and accurate,” Ozpin replied. “I assure you, Riku has my full trust.”

“I deferred to your judgment regarding Qrow’s niece despite my own reservations—which I know Glynda shares—since this _is_ your Academy, but this is too much,” Ironwood snapped back. “You’ve handed a full commission to a boy not even old enough to be called an adult in any of the kingdoms. This goes beyond your absurd faith in half-trained cadets. Do you really expect a child like that to fight a war?” Fed up, Ironwood turned on his heel and stormed out.

“I fear he already has,” Ozpin said quietly, as the door shut behind James.

* * *

Riku debated with himself for a long minute. His instinct was to either continue spying to learn all he could, or to slip away, return to his original task, and perhaps probe Ruby for information later… 

A glance at his own hand dissuaded him. His skin was bare, not wrapped in a black glove. His natural tan, rather than the olive complexion of the Seeker of Darkness. He wasn’t allowed to skulk unseen in the shadows anymore; Sora had saved him from it, forbidden it. Riku’s place was half-shadowed, of course, but his other foot had to be firmly in the light, standing at Sora’s right hand. Sora’s demand had been silly and playful, but Riku found himself unable to dismiss it, and not for the first time lately found himself choosing his course of action based on what he thought Sora would do.

Sighing resignedly, Riku took a few steps back from the corner, then broke back into a run, turning the corner as if he had been running all along instead of pausing to listen and think. Both girls jumped, Ruby whirling around to face him, the other shifting, holding her hands behind her back and looking ready to make a break for it.

“Ruby?” Riku asked, feigning surprise. “What are you doing down here in the city? Did you make that crash?” he added, eyeing the splinters that dusted the collapsed Crescent Rose.

“Only the first one!” she protested, scuffing her shoe.

“Never mind that, are you okay?” Riku pressed. “Do you need help?”

“Do you know this person, Ruby?” asked the second girl, who was still edging away from Riku with both her hands behind her back. His instincts screamed at not being able to see her hands, but she seemed more nervous than threatening.

“Oh! Penny, yes!” Ruby spun back, grabbing the other girl’s arm to stop her backing away any further. “This is Riku, he’s…” she seemed to dither over how much to explain, before simply finishing, “He’s my friend too.”

The other girl, Penny, seemed to relax very slightly, though she kept her hands concealed. “Um, salutations then, Ruby’s friend,” she said awkwardly. She still looked very uncomfortable.

“You can trust him, Penny,” Ruby said soothingly. “He won’t tell anyone else about your secret, I promise.”

The girl’s bright green eyes shifted from Ruby to Riku uncertainly. “I don’t know, Ruby…”

“Penny, this is a good step toward making friends!” Ruby cajoled the girl. “I didn’t freak out on you and neither will Riku. I bet he’s seen stranger things.”

“Probably,” said Riku, hiding his bemusement and playing along. “I once met a wooden puppet that could walk and talk by itself.”

Both girls stared at him.

“I’m serious, he was made of wood and only about this tall,” Riku gestured at waist-height, “but he could move around by himself and was learning to tell right from wrong.” Riku shrugged. “From the first time I met him, I could sense that he had a heart, though.”

Ruby slowly turned back to Penny, then tugged on the arm she was holding, dragging Penny’s clenched fist out from behind her back. She prised at the girls fingers for a moment, until Penny relaxed her hand. The skin of her palms was torn, some hanging away in flaps…revealing jointed metal. 

“Salutations, my name is Penny,” the girl whispered. “I’m…not real.”

Ruby let go of her fingers and grasped Penny’s hand in both of hers. “Yes, you are, Penny!” she said fiercely. “Just because you’re made of nuts and bolts instead of muscles and guts doesn’t make you any less real than us!” Riku nodded solemnly.

Penny, seeming very taken aback, looked between Ruby and Riku. “You're…both taking this extraordinarily well.”

“You’re not like the A.K.s, Penny,” Ruby said firmly. “You’ve got a heart. And a soul, I can feel it! _‘Aura is the manifestation of our soul; the truest expression of our individuality’._ ” That sounded like a recitation from something half-textbook, half-scripture—Riku suspected she was quoting Weiss, or perhaps Pyrrha. “You have an Aura, Penny; you _have a soul_.”

“For what it’s worth, I can feel you have a heart full of light,” Riku chipped in.

“See? You _are_ real, Penny!” Ruby insisted.

“Ooooh!” Penny exclaimed, wrapping her hands around Ruby and picking her up. “You’re the best friend anyone could have, Ruby!” She turned to Riku. “And, thank _you_ also for your kind words, my new friend!”

Ruby was flailing, trying to escape as she whirled unwillingly through the air. “Penny! Ribs!” she grunted. Penny set her back down, and Ruby groaned theatrically. “I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower!”

“Oh, he's very sweet!” Penny exclaimed, suddenly happy-go-lucky. “My father is the one who built me! I'm sure you would just love him!” Riku, smiling, remembered Pinocchio once telling him much the same thing, when he had met the little puppet in the belly of Monstro the World-whale. 

“So what happened on the street back there?” he cut in.

“Oh, Ruby was helping me run away from some soldiers, and she tripped into the street. I had to stop the truck so that it wouldn’t hit her,” Penny answered cheerfully. “I do hope he’s all right.” Then her head drooped a little. “I’ll have to tell my father so that he can compensate that man for the damage.”

Riku, however, was focused on another detail. “Why exactly are you running from soldiers?” he asked Ruby.

“They were chasing us and I didn’t know why!” she pouted.

“Check down there!” came a distant shout from behind them.

Ruby and Penny froze. “I guess that’s them?” Riku asked. Both girls nodded. 

“You have to hide!” Penny exclaimed, almost quietly. _Almost_. 

“Penny, you don’t have to go with them! We can help you!” Ruby cried, also not very quietly, but Penny shook her head.

“They’re not bad people; I just don’t want you two to get into trouble.”

Riku looked around. “Up there.” He crossed to the building behind them, which was inset from the second story up, leaving a respectable ledge less than ten feet above them. He crouched and laced his fingers for Ruby. “Sprint and jump,” he told her hurriedly.

Ruby looked up, realized what he meant, and nodded. She dashed, a few rose petals floating in the breeze, and Riku heaved upward when her foot hit his hand. With a surprisingly soft noise, Ruby hooked Crescent Rose over the edge of the roof, scrambling quickly up it.

“Climb!” she hissed down to Riku, as footsteps grew louder down the alley. 

For the second time, Riku planted a foot against the wall and leapt. He caught the weapon’s haft, quickly hauling himself up too. Ruby retrieved Crescent Rose and collapsed it, and they both crouched very still. They weren’t invisible, but were unlikely to draw attention from ground level if they didn’t move.

“There she is!” 

Two men in armour had spotted Penny and hurried to meet her.

“Why were you running from us?” one demanded.

“You shouldn’t cause such a scene,” the other scolded, before Penny could answer. “When your father hears…”

The first soldier nudged him, and he fell silent. “Are you okay?” the first asked.

“Just a scratch.” Penny held out her hands, displaying her torn ‘flesh’.

“You’ve got to be more careful, Penny,” said the second soldier, still scolding, but kinder about it. “Please, come with us.”

Penny saluted, and followed the soldiers, glancing up at Ruby and Riku as she left. She was still smiling cheerily. A moment later, the alley was empty. 

Ruby slumped against the wall they were leaning against. “I’m glad you saw the roof,” she said quietly to Riku. “If you hadn’t, I think Penny would have stuffed me into the dumpster to hide me.”

“So she’s…like a machine?” Riku asked, wonderingly.

“I guess so.” Ruby shrugged. “Atlas makes a lot of robots, but not like Penny.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Riku mused. “Sometimes Heartless look like metal, but Penny seems almost completely human.”

“I ran into her today and she was acting funny,” Ruby explained. “I hope she won’t get into trouble if they ask her too many questions.” She paused, then giggled. “She hiccups when she tells lies.”

Riku snorted in disbelief. “The puppet I told you about? His nose would grow longer when he told lies,” he revealed.

“ _Weeeird…_ ” Ruby drew the word out, crossing her eyes to look down at her own small nose.

“What are you doing here, Ruby?” Riku asked next, settling more comfortably on the edge of the roof, his feet dangling off the ledge. He eyed her clothes. She was decidedly not in uniform, nor was she wearing the clothes she’d been in when he met her. These looked chosen for a purpose, not comfort or style.

“Oh, um…” Ruby floundered suddenly. 

Riku, eyebrow raised, glanced meaningfully in the direction Penny had left and gave a loud, fake hiccup. 

Ruby pouted again, but relented. “A few weeks ago, we ran into some goons and stopped a robbery while we were out on the town. Blake was worried about what they might be up to, since their ringleader got away that night, and we all decided to see what we could dig up in town.” Seeing his skepticism, she added defensively, “We wanted to help catch the bad guys! Anyway, Weiss is at the CCT,” she pointed at the massive tower that marked the center of the city, “getting data from her dad’s company. We split up when I noticed Penny. That night was also the last time I saw Penny, so I was worried about her. Yang is checking with an informant down by the warehouse district. Blake is—”

Ruby’s explanation was cut off by an urgent beeping from her pocket. She drew out her Scroll, which immediately began to speak with Blake’s voice:

“Everyone! If you can hear me, we need backu-”

Another voice cut across her, sounding far more frantic. “HEEEELLLLP!

* * *

“What is it, James?” Irritation was plain in Glynda’s voice, but at least she didn’t flat-out walk away from him again. This was simply you’re-interrupting-me irritation.

“I just don’t understand it,” Ironwood rumbled. “Ozpin’s handed a full commission to someone who just dropped out of the sky, and he acts like I’m the one in the wrong for questioning it.”

Goodwitch sighed. “Your skepticism is understandable, James, but when has Ozpin ever steered you wrong?” she asked pointedly. Ironwood scowled, and she sighed again, removing her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I assure you, I brought up many of the same objections when I met him yesterday morning. A few short hours later, Ozpin had me spar with him in front of my first-year class. He pressed me harder than anyone has in years.”

Ironwood started. “You…”

“Ozpin ceased the match before any of us could be hurt, but he depleted almost half my Aura, and weathered dozens of direct strikes even with no appreciable Aura reserves.” She drummed her fingers on the handle of her crop.

James’ jaw was hanging, but he couldn’t seem to stop it. Glynda was saying… 

“It doesn’t matter who he is, James, or where he comes from. Ozpin…is right to treat him as a Huntsman,” she confessed. “He’s younger than our students, but he’s stronger than most of them, too. I urge you, don’t judge him by his appearance.”

“Then you don’t know where he is from either?” he asked, disappointed.

Goodwitch frowned. “All that matters is that he is a long way from home and in need of our help.”

Ironwood frowned deeply in turn. “What does he _know_ that we don’t?” he growled, clearly no longer referring to Riku.

“If we needed to know, he’d tell us, James. Let it be,” Goodwitch said quellingly.

“Just how much longer am I supposed to sit quietly and _keep faith_ , with no endgame in sight, Glynda?” Ironwood asked, barely louder than a whisper. “How much longer does he plan to pretend that the threat looming before us isn’t there?”

* * *

Ruby was kind enough not to run faster than Riku could keep up as the pair hurried West, back through ground Riku had already covered, in the shadow of enormous roads that connected the Residential District to the Industrial.

“Are we getting close?” Riku asked, leading the way per Ruby’s shouted instructions.

Ruby, following him easily, had one eye on her Scroll, apparently tracking her sister’s location. “Yep,” she chirped, sounding breathlessly eager. “And this Torchwick guy is the same one who got away from us before!” 

Weiss’ voice issued from the Scroll. “I’m in position!”

“Hit it!” Ruby shouted back, skidding to a stop. Crescent Rose blurred open as she spun the weapon to a ready position.

Blake landed lightly a short distance away, holding a blade in each hand, and they all looked up as they heard a tremendous skidding and crashing sound from the highway far above.

“Incoming!” Riku yelled. With a final, earthshaking impact, an enormous machine that walked on two legs hit the ground in front of them. He took a moment to gape as Weiss and Yang joined their teammates. The thing was at least three or four times his height, and had to weigh tons, by the way it cracked the stone as it walked.

Team RWBY was conferring, seemingly ignoring the enemy as it plainly focused its weapons on them. Riku flashed in front of them and raised a Dark Shield to cover the girls as they all nodded evidently agreeing to the plan. Ruby dashed to his side, but as soon as the machine stopped firing, Riku began circling away from the others.

“Do what you would normally do!” he barked, mentally calling out Way To The Dawn. “Pretend I’m not here!”

They would only slow themselves down by trying to include him in their plans. As he moved around to the front of it, Riku hurled the Keyblade, marvelling at how often he found himself relying on the versatile technique. He aimed for what were clearly weapon ports, bending or snapping off the barrels before anyone could be hurt.

Then Ruby cried out, “Newspaper!” 

Blake and Weiss leapt forward in answer to Ruby’s order, dashing forward with their leader at the machine’s feet. Ruby slashed repeatedly at the right knee, apparently jamming some mechanism, because it moved sluggishly for a moment until it suddenly reared back, preparing to stomp down on Blake. Blake seemed to vanish into her own shadow, leaving an afterimage to take the hit as she rolled aside, slashing at the left foot as she passed. Weiss seemed almost to slide across the ground, thrusting at both the thing’s legs, causing ice to erupt around the feet and joints, slowing it down.

Riku continued flinging Way To The Dawn, now aiming at the glass where he could just barely see the orange-haired man operating the machine. He also aimed anywhere he saw a red beam of light emerge from the machine, having realized that was how it aimed its weapons. 

“Strawberry Sunrise!” Ruby called, and Riku recalled the Keyblade for the final time after a Judgment strike, skipping backward to avoid Yang’s dash toward the mech. Blake and Weiss cartwheeled away, leaving Yang with her sister, both of whom leapt into the air. Ruby drew Crescent Rose back for a mighty blow, and Yang punched the scythe’s haft, opposite the blade. Ruby spun end over end through the air, Crescent Rose whirling like a catherine wheel, until it sheared through the machine’s left arm, cutting it off entirely.

As the two fell back, Riku ran forward once more, focusing dark energy down Way To The Dawn. He leapt into the air and stabbed downward. Dark Break. He had practiced the same technique this very morning, seemingly a million years ago. This time, he used the full version, letting the Darkness blast from the Keyblade to propel him upward repeatedly, and causing sparks to fly from the mech’s many joints as the corrosive dark energy disrupted its systems. The machine’s torso suddenly twisted fully around at the waist joint, bringing its remaining arm up to slap Riku out of the air. He barely managed to interpose the Keyblade, and the blow still sent him flying until he impacted a column, knocking the wind from him.

As Riku unwillingly exited the fray, Yang caught Ruby’s eye and pointed at Weiss. Ruby nodded, and shouted, “Bee’s Schnees!”

Weiss closed her eyes, plainly focusing hard, and Ruby took up a guard position in front of her. Blake tossed Yang one of her weapons, which was connected to the other by some sort of ribbon. Yang caught it, wrapping the ribbon around her wrist, and skipped backward, away from the enemy. When she came to a stop, a snowflake-like glyph of light appeared beneath her. She crouched and leaped, and the glyph seemed to catapult her into the air far faster than expected. Blake yanked down hard, trying to keep her feet, which caused Yang to fly in a graceful arc toward the enemy, her free fist reared back.

The mech was unable to move away due to the ice around its feet and damage to its knees, and its remaining arm was too far away to stop Yang. She brought her fist down in a mighty punch, which seemed to simultaneously set off some sort of explosive charge. Yang’s blow collapsed the mech’s legs completely, and knocked the cockpit down to the ground, where it shattered open. The recoil made Yang fly away again, landing roughly where she had launched from as Torchwick struggled to his feet in the wreckage.

The girls looked tired, and too far away to stop the thief from making a break for it, so Riku leveled his Keyblade, mirroring Weiss’ ready stance. More dark energy flowed through him, and he dashed forward in a Dark Rave, thrusting toward Torchwick’s legs as he staggered away. When Riku struck, however, Torchwick’s image seemed to shatter like glass, vanishing without a trace. The Darkness in him raged, feral. Riku sniffed, then spun on the spot, stabbing at chest height.

His attack was parried by…a parasol? Furious, Riku launched a Dark Arcanum, but no matter how fast or fiercely he struck, she deflected every blow. The flowery pink umbrella jabbed him in the stomach, sending him stumbling back a step. The girl looked back at him, a smug smile playing about her lips, but her mismatched eyes—left brown, right pink—were extremely cold. The parasol opened, twirling decoratively, before the tiny girl rested it daintily on her shoulder. Riku wasn’t fooled. It took a substantial amount of strength to stop his attacks cold, the more so when empowered by the Darkness. She blinked, and suddenly the colors of her eyes switched. The Darkness seethed, calling for her heart, but Riku pushed it away.

“Ah, just in time, Neo,” Torchwick wheezed, not as composed as he had probably intended. “If you would be so kind…?”

Another twirl of the parasol deflected shots from Ruby and Blake. Yang charged past Riku, wound up for another mighty punch, but the girl and Torchwick just shattered again. Another illusion. They all heard the roar of an engine, and looked up to find both of their erstwhile foes in an airship, which rapidly shot out of sight.

Lip curling, Riku dismissed Way To The Dawn and forced the darkness within himself back into submission. The others were discussing Neo, who was evidently new to them. Her heart was steeped in darkness, even more than Torchwick’s—it called to the darkness in his own heart, which had led to his loss of temper. 

She was going to be trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : Yes, I did make up new attack combos to match more ship names. And we end on an ominous note, where I hopefully actually manage to lay my finger on what makes Riku different from Sora—he can never be free of the Darkness (ugh, that barely looks like a word anymore), and using it is never without consequence.
> 
> The ‘one Faunus girl’ who comes in to the gym sometimes is an oblique reference to a story I wrote during RWBY RS Week, ‘Any Port In A Storm’, which is about Velvet having Professor Port for a mentor. It’s not really relevant, and of course, Team CFVY has already left for their away mission at this point.
> 
> I honestly hadn’t planned for Riku to meet up with the girls until the stolen Paladin started tearing through town, but Penny popped up and it only made sense that Riku would be okay with her. He didn’t really question Pinocchio, and it let me make a point that occurred to me during the scene in canon—Ruby can _literally_ feel that Penny has a soul. She has Aura. Likewise, Riku can sense her heart. Penny may not be ‘human’, but she is absolutely a sentient individual.
> 
> Finally, I want to mention again that if you pop over to my FFN profile page, you’ll see a link to a forum I constructed if readers want to interact with me about my stories. I haven’t had many takers yet, but I’d love to engage with you guys a little more publicly.


	6. Confronting The Soulless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dreams thicken! Here we have a bit of a slower chapter while we cool down from the last fight, and spread some more exposition (I hope it isn’t too boring…).
> 
>  _Note_ : The words on Yang’s (borrowed) shirt come from her theme song, _I Burn_. Why is Riku wearing it? Mostly because it just now occurred to me that he doesn’t have any changes of clothes and his usual outfit probably smells by now.
> 
>  _ **EDIT**_ : This wasn't supposed to be a pre-note, but my end-note ran so long that AO3 made me truncate it. ;_;

Riku had expected debriefing with Ozpin to take hours, but the headmaster only asked for a brief report from each of them before dismissing them. Riku, for his part, was too distracted by the tall, broad-shouldered man with the salt-and-pepper hair glaring at him from where he stood by the window. The man said nothing, however, so Riku left with the others.

“So who was that Neo girl, d’you think?” Ruby asked, cheerful even after the events of what had been an extremely long day for all of them.

“Illusionist,” Riku grunted, when no one else seemed likely to speak up. Weiss looked stony, Yang was grinding her teeth, and even Blake seemed grimmer than usual. “Dangerous,” he added shortly.

“Why do you say that?” Blake asked.

“She reeks of Darkness,” he explained heavily. “Way more than Torchwick, who you said is a thief? Short odds she’s a killer. I certainly wouldn’t bet against it.” He shook his head. “She also blocked every swing without any effort.”

“Even Goodwitch staggered when you hit her…” Yang murmured, uncharacteristically reserved.

“I was hitting a lot harder tonight,” Riku said as they approached their room. “And she didn’t even seem to notice. She’s strong, which is the only reason the Darkness hasn’t consumed her…but I’d say it’s only a matter of time.”

“What’ll happen then?” Ruby asked, hanging her hood on the end of her bed.

“She’ll become a Heartless,” he answered simply, as he toed off his shoes by the door. “And she may even leave behind a Nobody.”

“What’s that?” Ruby pressed, but Riku shook his head again.

“It’s not important for tonight. We should sleep and discuss what we learned in the morning.” He crossed to the bookshelf, peeling off his shirt before he climbed up onto the bookcase.

“Riku!”

“What?” He looked around at Blake, who looked stricken. Weiss was facing away, but Ruby also appeared concerned. Yang seemed torn between worry and licking her lips. “ _What_?” he repeated.

“You’re hurt,” Blake said, eyes on his chest. 

Riku looked down. Lurid bruises stretched down his whole torso, and probably his back as well. He shrugged. “Oh,” he said offhandedly. “It’ll be fine by morning.”

“Are you insane?” said Weiss, who had finally looked back briefly to see what Blake was talking about. Riku guessed she had turned away on principle when he took his shirt off.

“Those bruising patterns are consistent with cracked ribs,” Blake said clinically. “Ruby, where’s our First Aid kit?”

Riku raised his hands. “Guys, I’m _fine_ ,” he said quellingly. “I just need some rest; when I wake up this will all be gone.”

“That’s completely impossible,” Weiss huffed. “Even with Aura you would take weeks to recover from that.”

Riku smiled. “Good thing I’m not healing with Aura, then, isn’t it?” He turned away again and clambered onto his window seat, pulling the curtain over himself so the girls could prepare for bed. “Look, if it’s still bad in the morning, you can take me to the hospital or whatever. Sleep well, you four.”

Reluctantly—he could tell by how long it took them to begin rummaging around—they began to go about their routine. Riku gazed at the unfamiliar sky, wondering which of the twinkling stars shone on his home world. He heard the girls leave for the bathroom as a group, then return individually. Eyes still focused on the infinite heavens, he listened to the click of the lightswitch, the creak of Ruby’s ropes, the groan as Yang heaved herself up onto her bunk, and Weiss’ now-familiar sigh as Ruby’s snores began. As usual, he heard nothing from Blake except for the door opening and closing a fourth time, but assumed that she too had lain down.

Riku let his eyes flutter closed. Fortunately—he supposed you could call it fortunate—he didn’t often dream on nights he was healing. That could be good or bad, overall. The stench of Neo’s heart seemed to linger in his nostrils, unshakable. She was even more lost than he had been when he opened his heart to the Seeker of Darkness… Those were not things he enjoyed dreaming about, but at the same time, resting to recover meant that he would wake slower than normal, which distressed him, and if he _did_ dream he wouldn’t wake from the nightmare as easily as he usually did. There was not much choice, however. He supposed this was a safe enough place to heal.

Eventually, Riku’s breathing slowed, and sleep took him.

* * *

_Blake Belladonna floated in darkness._

_She didn’t seem to be moving, and as she looked down at herself, she found she could not focus on the fine details of her appearance, for they were constantly in flux. Her hair fell to brush her eyes, now black, now red, now blonde. Her wrist-wraps came and went; her hands were long and slender, then short and callused, now broad and sheathed in fingerless gloves with yellow wristlets hanging loosely about them. It was as though she looked through the eyes of a being who was her and all her teammates at once._

_At the sound of a deep, booming voice, Blake looked up to see a man with olive skin and long white hair. Emblazoned on his muscular chest was the emblem of a black heart crossed by a thorny red saltire. Most striking, and most terrifying, were the man’s mad yellow eyes, seeming to glow almost like those of the Heartless. The voice washed over her, and she shuddered. Though he was undoubtedly a powerful orator, something evil lurked behind the honeyed tone as he spoke to a boy with spiky brown hair floating before him, holding a simple silver Keyblade—Sora, she thought, based on Riku’s descriptions._

_“It is futile! The Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness!” The man whirled around, reaching out a hand toward a very tall white door upon a jagged chunk of marble, floating unsupported and out of place. He looked quite insane as he cried out, like a man possessed, “Kingdom Hearts! Fill me…with the power of darkness!”_

_The great door began to open, tongues of darkness emanating from beyond its cold white stone, and Blake felt terror seize her again…but the brown-haired boy suddenly spoke._

_“You’re wrong,” he said quietly. “I know now, without a doubt: Kingdom Hearts…is light!”_

_A blinding light burst forth from beyond the door, causing the white-haired man to fling an arm up to protect his eyes. He grunted, halfway between pain and disbelief, and his silhouette dissolved into nothing._

_The boy soared forward to push the door closed again, and through the gap Blake saw why: the glowing yellow eyes of countless Heartless moved steadily nearer, and in an instant she knew that there was not enough time to get the door closed. The boy heaved, and a gloved hand belonging to a silver-haired boy—unmistakably a younger Riku—emerged from the other side of the door to pull. But the Heartless grew ever closer and more numerous, larger and stronger varieties closing in on the door._

_Blake reached out, her hand encompassing all of Team RWBY’s desire to assist, but no one seemed to see them as Riku heaved to shut the door on himself. From deep within the dark mass of Heartless, there was a sudden gleam that drove the horde back, and a voice seemed to whisper to them all._

_**Don’t worry. There will always be a door to the light.** _

_Sora leapt back, brandishing his Keyblade, and as the door closed, the glow of the Keyblade sealing the door seemed to grow ever brighter, blinding, and there was no more to see._

Blake woke, silently as usual, and forced her breathing to remain steady. Her ears twitched under the bow. Her three teammates were all awake, too, suddenly; Ruby’s snores and Yang’s murmuring were absent, and Weiss was shifting in a way she never did while asleep. Blake remained motionless, and in minutes the others settled back down. None of them seemed to notice the others’ wakefulness, and soon they were all sleeping once more. 

Blake turned her head to look at the spot on the bookshelf where the curtain screened Riku from sight. She had no idea whether he was awake, but didn’t think so. She shivered, but got carefully out of bed, and padded over to the other side of the bookshelf, beside Weiss’ bed. Lifting the curtain, Blake climbed onto the sill herself, as she had done two nights previously. Settling down, she saw that, unusually, Riku was indeed asleep. He hadn’t even twitched when she moved the curtain, though Blake was sure she had heard him wake from far lesser disruptions. Did that mean he was getting more comfortable and relaxing more around them? Or was he too injured…? Should she rouse him? She kept her eyes on him for a long time before her lids drooped and she drifted off once more.

* * *

Consciousness returned, and Riku made his customary sensory inspection before cracking his eyelids. Lights low—it was still before dawn. Scent normal—no excessive darkness. Room quiet—no skittering and four sets of even breathing…though three were in front of him and only one behind, instead of two and two as was normal. He opened his eyes, and saw Blake sitting up against the other side of the window.

Riku turned his head to look at the sky, just beginning to lighten as the sun rose from the horizon behind them, but even that slight movement woke Blake. Her breathing changed suddenly, and her whole body tensed.

“Good morning,” he whispered, and her yellow eyes snapped open.

“You’re up early again,” she whispered back.

Riku just shrugged. “Always.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” Riku nodded. “It’s doesn’t happen often. Nice change.”

They sat quietly for a while. Then Blake sighed. “Are you going to keep hiding your chest?” She gestured at his bent legs, on which his folded arms were resting, blocking her view of his torso. “Why wouldn’t you let us help you?”

“I didn’t need help,” Riku reiterated. He shifted so that she could see his chest and side, which were now unblemished. “I appreciate your concern, but this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten hurt.” He gave a brief, bitter chuckle.

Blake leaned forward. “How…?”

“We don’t really know.” Riku shrugged. “When Sora or anyone else gets hurt, they use Cure magic. That’s never as effective on me, no matter who’s casting. But when I go to sleep hurt, I wake up fine. Not even the King and Master Yen Sid could explain it, but that’s how it is.” 

Personally, Riku had a theory that the healing spells were only half-effective because they were Light-powered, and wouldn’t work on his dark half. There was no way to test this theory, though, because while there was a Dark-powered Cure, he had no way to force a Green Requiem, for instance, to attempt to heal him. Anyway, presumably that would also only have a half-effect, so little would be gained. Instead, the Light and Darkness within him went into overdrive while he rested, both energizing him so that the endless battle for his divided heart could continue another day.

“Thanks for caring,” he repeated.

“What’s the worst you’ve gotten hurt?” Blake asked hesitantly.

“I broke my arm when I was little,” Riku chuckled. “I know, I know,” he added, as Blake opened her mouth to clarify. “It’s difficult to say, because even as bad as those bruises looked last night, they didn’t really hurt. Lots of normal injuries don’t register to me, and corrosion by darkness often destroys your ability to feel pain: Heartless’ claws hurt, but the darkness also numbs like a poison. Ordinary people tend to succumb all the faster to that Darkness and become Heartless themselves. The worst pain I’ve felt…was probably from the Seeker of Darkness in Castle Oblivion on the borderworld. The King was there to help me until I recovered. That’s the most I’ve been hurt by Darkness—the worst by Light was fighting Roxas. I was steeped in darkness myself during that battle, and the Keyblade is inimical to it.”

“Roxas?” Blake repeated. “You fought another Keyblade wielder?”

“I’ve fought a few, but Roxas wasn’t…entirely one of us. He was like a reflection of Sora…” He shook his head. “It’s not important right now. The time I fought him was when I walked in the twilight, before Sora brought me back to the light.” His stomach rumbled suddenly, and he added. “I also find that healing the way I do tends to burn a lot of energy. Want to get breakfast?”

Blake popped the bones in her neck, and nodded. She slipped out from behind the curtain, padding across the floor, and Riku looked back out the window, waiting for her to change. “All right,” she whispered after a moment, and he pulled the curtain off himself. His feet had barely touched the floor before a mass of yellow cloth hit him in the face. He caught it, and held up a large tee shirt with orange flames around the hem and the words _‘Strike a match, ignite the scene’_ across the chest. He raised an eyebrow.

“You need to wash your usual clothes,” Blake said bluntly, still rummaging through Yang’s drawer. “Here, these jeans should fit, too.” He managed to catch them before they hit his face, and left for the washroom Ren had showed him. It was empty when he arrived, and though he heard someone come in whistling tunelessly, he didn’t greet them. He tried on the borrowed clothes, and found they actually fit relatively well. If anything, they were a bit big. Though the jeans only came down to his calves, he had to retrieve his usual belt to keep them from sliding off his hips. Blake was ready when he returned, drying his hair, she she indicated he could leave his clothes with the rest of theirs to be washed today. All this done, they slipped back out without waking any of the others, and headed down to the cafeteria.

* * *

Only two other teams seemed to be up this early, both older than Team RWBY. One was that of Velvet, the rabbit Faunus who Riku had seen briefly. Her teammates, a dark-skinned boy with white eyes, a girl with brown hair and a beret, and an enormous boy with short-cropped hair, all looked up as Blake and Riku greeted Velvet, then returned to their meal when they saw Velvet smiling. 

The other team, Riku was sure he hadn’t seen before; three girls and one boy, the latter a leopard Faunus. His whiskers twitched on either side of his feline nose as he spoke to the girl across from him. She said something back and shook her head, silver hair swaying gently, and Riku realized that what he had thought was a circlet was actually azure dye that circled her head just above her eyes. Her Faunus teammate scowled, pitching a muffin at her petulantly. She caught it easily and redirected it upward, quickly snatching up more bits of food which she promptly began juggling. The team leader beside her, resplendent in a half-jacket lined with black fur, roared with laughter, while their remaining teammate, a strawberry blonde wearing scarlet scale armour, merely sighed, though her lips were twitching.

“I had an interesting dream,” Blake said suddenly, drawing Riku’s attention back to her as they sat down.

“Oh?”

She nodded. “More like a memory than a dream, except it wasn’t any memory of mine. It also made me remember that it wasn’t the first dream I’ve had like this. I had another one before you arrived.”

Riku said nothing, but tilted his head as he cut up his french toast.

“Tell me,” Blake asked. “Your friend Sora, you said he has spiky brown hair?” she gestured with her fork in an approximation of Sora’s usual cowlick. “Did he also wear red shorts and big yellow shoes?”

Riku stared. “You dreamed about Sora?”

“He fought a man with long white hair, and then I saw you help him…close a door…” Blake continued softly. Riku’s hands were clenched around his utensils, and his gaze dropped to his plate. “Is that the story you told us, that day on the cliff by Forever Fall?”

Jaw tight, Riku nodded. Then, apparently forcing himself to speak, he added, “The white-haired man you saw was the Seeker of Darkness. He manipulated me, that first year away from home, so that he could take control of my body.” He paused, sighing heavily. “You mentioned another dream?”

“The night before you appeared, I dreamed I saw you standing on a beach, with Sora and a red-haired girl, and two more people who looked like them, but with blond hair,” Blake summarized. “The two extras disappeared, then so did Sora and the girl, and only you were left.”

“You too?” said a voice behind Riku. He jumped, and looked around to find Ruby dropping into the seat beside him.

“Wh-” Riku started to ask, but Ruby continued as she dug into her own breakfast.

“I had that same dream,” she mumbled through a mouthful of cereal. Weiss glared at her, and Ruby swallowed, looking sheepish, before she continued. “That’s why I brought you with me when I saw you in the city.”

“You know, now you mention it, that does sound kinda familiar…” Yang said slowly. I remember having a funny dream that night too…a weird voice and some fruits shaped like a star?” She shrugged, peeling a banana. “Last night’s dream was way more memorable; that white-haired guy looked like serious bad news.”

Riku frowned. Sora had mentioned odd dreams before, and Riku himself was no stranger to them, but they usually came in the form of a Dive to the Heart unless he intentionally entered the Realm of Sleep. But in a Dive, everything one saw was a reflection of oneself, and they were only instigated by a Keyblade searching for the heart of a worthy wielder—they did not show visions of things that had happened to someone else, and certainly not to four different people.

“Silly as it sounds,” Weiss added, “I must concur—these dreams were extremely vivid, and the first one was part of the reason for my…poor initial attitude,” she finished carefully, her cheeks a little red. Her eyes met Riku’s steadily, however. “What does it mean?”

“Mean?” he repeated. “I have no idea. Last night…it sounds like you all saw what really happened. The light of even the incomplete Kingdom Hearts was too much for the Seeker, and together Sora and the King sealed the Door to Darkness.”

“The other dream, then,” Weiss pressed. “I saw you with four other people.” She drew a notebook from her bag and flipped it open. There upon the two spread pages were rather impressive sketches of Sora’s, Roxas’, Kairi’s, and Naminé’s faces. “Who are they?”

Sighing, Riku named them off. Yang poked at Sora’s face. “He’s the one I saw last night,” she said decisively, taking a bite of muffin. “With that silver Keyblade, right?”

Riku sighed, glancing around, but no one was nearby to overhear. He dropped his voice anyway. “Look, I’ve told you about the Heartless. When a heart is overcome by darkness, a heartless is born, right? Well, when that happens, the body disappears from the Realm of Light. But, if the lost heart is strong enough, the remaining empty body can be reborn as what we call a Nobody. They’re stronger, individually, than Heartless, on account of their physical existence, but without a heart they are incomplete, and as such you can say that they don’t actually exist. They’re entirely incapable of emotions, though some learn to pretend very effectively.”

“If they don’t have hearts, why aren’t they called ‘Heartless’?” Ruby wondered.

Riku shrugged. “Maybe the Heartless were just named first? I don’t know. Most Nobodies seek hearts just like the Heartless do, but that’s because they want to regain hearts of their own and become whole. They’re not mindless or even necessarily dark. They’re from the In-Between Realm, and like I said, in a way they don’t really exist.” His gaze dropped to Sora’s face in the notebook, and he drew a finger across his friend’s cheek. “I’ve told you that almost every heart has some darkness in it; that applies even to the heroes of the Keyblade—even to Sora. I know of only seven beings whose hearts lack darkness entirely.” His finger shifted to Kairi’s portrait. “The seven Princesses of Heart. Kairi is one of them. When she lost her heart on the night our island disappeared, she didn’t become a Heartless because there was no darkness in her to take over. Instead, her heart hid away inside of Sora’s. I found her body, later, which hadn’t disappeared because her heart never left the Realm of Light.” 

Riku’s fists tightened, but he made himself go on. “When I fought Sora, under the control of the Seeker of Darkness, I tried to take his heart in order to release Kairi’s. The Seeker of Darkness planned to use the seven hearts of pure light to force Kingdom Hearts to truly appear, or so he thought. Sora won, but then he turned the Keyblade of Captive Hearts on himself, so that Kairi’s heart could return to her body.”

Everyone’s eyes were wide.

“Two hearts drifted away, and Kairi woke up. In the end, the light in her heart made a beacon that Sora’s heart followed back. He reappeared, safe and alive, but the fact remained that his heart _did_ leave the Realm of Light. And so his Nobody was born.” Riku’s finger next moved to the portrait below Sora’s. “Roxas, the Key of Destiny. Being essentially Sora, he was able to call on Sora’s Keyblade.”

“You said you fought him?” Blake asked.

“That’s a very, very long story,” Riku waved it away. “In the end, Roxas and Sora were rejoined.” He pointed to the final portrait. “Naminé was still more different, because she wasn’t simply Kairi’s Nobody, she was also connected to Sora because of the bond between his heart and Kairi’s, and only born when _he_ lost his heart. As both Kairi and Sora are Keyblade Bearers, it follows that Naminé could be as well, though to my knowledge she never was. Like Roxas, Naminé merged with her Somebody last year, though they haven’t disappeared like other recompleted Nobodies, because they began to develop hearts of their own.” Riku shrugged. “Which is completely impossible, but there it is. Sora and Kairi both say they can still feel Roxas and Naminé sometimes, like a whisper over their shoulder when there’s no one there.”

“Do you have a Nobody?” Ruby asked hesitantly.

Riku shook his head. “I was flung into the Dark Realm when the Seeker of Darkness used my body as conduit, but I never lost my Heart.” He laid a hand reassuringly over his chest. The conversation lightened after that as they all finished eating, and before long they were all laughing together.

* * *

After breakfast, they returned to the dorm, and Ruby flung herself onto Weiss’ bed with a groan. “I can’t believe we have to go to class today…” 

“It’s just like every schoolday, Ruby!” Weiss scolded her as she packed up a bookbag. “Get up!” She poked her team leader in the side. Ruby, evidently ticklish, shrieked and fell off the bed. Weiss rolled her eyes. “Klutz,” she said, though her voice was fond, and she offered Ruby a hand back to her feet.

The teacher of Grimm Studies was a corpulent man with an impressive silver moustache, Professor Port. Riku didn’t pay much attention to the lecture, which seemed to be nothing but an embellished anecdote from the Professor’s youth, instead focusing on the chalkboards behind him. Each board contained a diagram of a dark-shaded creature with a white mask, detailing their approximate anatomy and with kill points labeled. Beowolf, Ursa, Nevermore, Boarbatusk…these, then, must be the Grimm that the girls were always talking about. They were nearly as varied as the Heartless in some worlds, though conspicuously lacked the emblem of manufactured Heartless.

He raised his hand and asked the Professor about that, wanting to be certain that nothing like the Emblem had ever been seen.

“Ho ho,” Port chortled. “If you wish to be certain, young man, then step forward! We have a specimen here for you to examine!” With a flourish, he swept a sheet off a large cage sitting in the corner. Within, a dark creature growled at the sudden light, and the appearance of all the students. 

Fascinated, Riku approached at the Professor’s invitation, glancing from the monster to the blackboard to identify it. A Creep. The name recalled the low-ranking Creeper Nobody, as did the two main legs supporting the body, but the Grimm’s legs looked much stronger, with inverted knee joints like a Wyvern Heartless without wings, and a similar, dinosaur-like snout. Yet, its dark flesh was solid and present, not shadow-stuff, and burning red eyes glared out of its skull-like mask. Red, not yellow. All Heartless had glowing yellow eyes—even humanoid Heartless like the Seeker of Darkness—it was a universal common trait of the creatures of the Dark Realm.

Riku stood right in front of the creature now, peering at it curiously. It was still growling low in its throat, its eyes fixed on him. He sniffed. It smelled…odd. Not like a Heartless at all; they were Darkness given form, and reeked of the stuff. The Grimm felt more like a Nobody: empty in a certain way…though definitely not the _same_ way. To his astonishment, he could sense a heart within the creature. It was a dark heart, true; he couldn’t sense even the smallest balancing glimmer of light, but it was not the endless abyss of a Heartless’ being.

Riku was frowning in earnest now. The Grimm had a physical body that genuinely existed. It had a heart, albeit one full of darkness. Yet it still seemed empty. Something was missing; something that constituted a complete being was lacking in the Grimm. 

Body. Heart. … _Soul_. 

It came to him in a flash. The books he had read on Aura had referred repeatedly to ‘The Soulless’ who lacked its protection. Riku had dismissed it as poetic, a way to indicate that only mortal creatures had Aura to train. Now, he felt rather forced to accept that the description was all too literal. He looked into the Creep’s eyes again, and he knew it was true. The monster existed, it was alive; it could think with its brain and feel with its heart, but there was no deeper understanding. Though they could think and reason, the Grimm were incapable of self-reflection, because they _had no self_ , lacking an intrinsic something that even Nobodies possessed. Riku glanced up at the highest blackboard, upon which was scribbled, ‘Grimm: The Manifestation of Anonymity’. Not poetic at all. The Grimm lacked souls to make them true individuals; true beings. This was a beast that arose naturally, but at the same time, decidedly should not _be_.

“Rumor has it…” the Professor rumbled, and Riku jumped, snapped out of his introspection. The portly man was knuckling his moustache. “Well, that your weapon is capable of opening locks? Perhaps you might demonstrate for us on the cage, before you slay the beast within? Hmmm?” He gestured grandly toward the Creep’s cage, upon which, sure enough, there was a large padlock. 

Riku sighed, but Ozpin had asked him to participate in classes. He raised his hand and called Way To The Dawn, pointing it at the lock. A narrow beam of light shot from the Keyblade and pierced the lock, which promptly clicked open. The Creep’s eyes focused on the dangling lock for a moment, before it began throwing itself repeatedly against the cage door. The lock swung, but the shackle remained where it was, blocking the clasp. Glaring at it, the Creep leaned against the door, then raised a foot to scratch at the offending bit of metal. No…not to scratch at it. It hooked a claw under the shank and lifted it immediately. It clattered to the floor and the door swung open under the Grimm’s weight. 

It had examined the latch and figured out exactly how to free itself. Definitely not mindless.

Riku blinked, coming back to himself as the Creep lunged. He leapt over it easily, although he was a little surprised at how fast it moved. Its stubby tail whipped through the air as it whirled on the spot, preparing to charge again. He skipped aside this time, avoiding the claw swipe as it passed, and struck at its tail with the Keyblade. It roared in pain and anger, skidding to a halt to watch him beadily. Riku, giving nothing away to an opponent that had already demonstrated observation and reasoning, simply retook his fighting stance, pushing down the temptation of darkness that always rose when a battle started. 

As the Grimm seemed content to wait, Riku did the same. He scowled at the Creep in turn. The Keyblade wasn’t really designed for fighting natural beings. It didn’t resist him, as he thought it would if he attacked a mortal with intent to kill, but he was sure that if the Grimm had been a Heartless his attack would have sheared its tail off instead of merely bruising it. This called for different tactics if he didn’t want to resort to the Darkness. All its armour was on its head and back, but slipping between its legs seemed like a risky prospect—it ran low to the ground, and seemed to have a great deal of precision in where it placed its feet if it was able to claw at him with its foot as it ran without breaking stride. Bluntly, that seemed like a good way to get trampled and gutted. The sides of the tail where he had struck before were vulnerable to harm, but didn’t seem to do more than hurt and annoy it. The head was covered in that skull-like mask…but then, what better place for armour than somewhere that was vulnerable? 

Riku narrowed his eyes. There was something in that, but from what he had gathered, the mask was a natural projection, not a piece of armour that the Grimm acquired—it was grown, not found, so he wouldn’t be able to simply slip it off. The lower jaw was unarmoured though, and there were always the eyeholes…

With another roar, the Grimm charged once more, though slower than before. Putting his plan into action, Riku spun to the side, slashing with the opposite side of Way To The Dawn than usual. The Keyblade’s wing-shaped bit struck true, directly into the beast’s left eye. It shrieked in agony, leg crumpling sympathetically, and Riku spun away once more. The Creep rolled over entirely, instantly clawing at him with both legs, but he smacked them back one after another with the Keyblade. He hammered at its belly, and when it opened its mouth to scream again, he inverted the weapon to plant it through the top of the Grimm’s mouth. With a final howl, the Creep vanished into smoke, leaving nothing behind. No heart rose, and he could say confidently that it didn’t resemble the dissolution of a dead Nobody. 

Riku released Way To The Dawn, which vanished at once, as he got back to his feet. He ignored the polite applause from the class as he returned to his seat. “Can I borrow a notebook?” he asked Blake, as the Professor drew the class’ attention once more.

She glanced at the book in front of her, and he saw what looked like a sketch of a man’s back, before she turned the page and slid the book before him. Riku picked up the pencil and began scribbling his observations immediately. Beside them, he quickly sketched the enemies’ emblems. Heartless, Nobody, Nightmare.

He glanced up at Blake. “Do the Grimm have a symbol?” She shook her head, looking curiously at the page. He tore it out and passed the notebook back to her, biting his lip. In the end, he simply drew a question mark beside the notation for Grimm. 

He felt the Professor’s eyes on him the whole time, but ignored it until the bell rang. As he rose to leave, he heard Port call, “A moment, Riku, if you would?” The rest of Team RWBY lagged obviously behind, and Port chortled. “Sit down, if you will, ladies; no need to force you to listen through the door.” Ruby blushed, plainly having been planning exactly that, and Riku snorted back a laugh. Port surveyed him for a moment, then turned back to the girls. “If you are going to stay, perhaps we can make a learning opportunity of it. Did you notice anything…of note, about Riku’s battle?”

Put on the spot, the girls looked at each other. After a moment, Weiss spoke up. “He fights without Dust or Aura, if that’s what you mean, sir?”

“Mmm…” Port hummed. “Astute and correct, Miss Schnee, but not what I wished to draw your attention to. I refer more to what we _did_ observe from him, rather than what we did not.” The girls didn’t answer, and Port rubbed his moustache. “A hint, perhaps. Riku, this was your first encounter with a creature of Grimm, was it not?” Riku nodded. “What did you observe from his clash, bearing in mind that he has never fought such a monster before?”

Blake answered quietly. “He studied it to learn its capabilities and weaknesses.”

“Excellent, Miss Belladonna!” Port puffed. “I am glad to see that your attention was captured today, at least.” Blake flushed a little as Port continued. “Yes, you see, this restraint and observation is most important during our clashes with the dæmons! They are not mindless once they grow old enough to display their masks, and so caution must always be taken lest the monster outthink you. I did not wish to put you unnecessarily on the spot,” he added, glancing at Riku, “But that is the entire purpose of this class, writ large.” 

Though surprised by the Professor’s consideration, Riku merely shrugged. “It’s an important skill to learn, sir,” he said neutrally.

Weiss glanced sidelong at Ruby. “That’s what I was trying to tell you in the Emerald Forest, you know,” she said, only a little huffily.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at her partner. “But I don’t _need_ to observe Beowolves to know how they attack! I’ve been fighting them my whole life,” she shot back. Weiss sighed, but she was smiling.

“That is all, children,” Port cut in. “I merely wanted you all to bear the fact in mind in future. You are dismissed.”

The five of them filed out, headed for the library to do some studying at Weiss’ insistence. Riku, keen to do some more reading on Aura and Grimm, promised Ruby and Yang a spar each if they would study now, and they both subsided. Weiss sniffed—no doubt thinking that studying should be its own reward—but smiled when both sisters dove for their books.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N** : Riku’s healing is basically straight Final Fantasy classic—he rests (as at an inn) and by morning he’s all better. Hopefully I handwaved it well enough that it doesn’t break suspension of disbelief too much, but it’s kind of important to distinguish how Riku differs from the others in terms of power. Aura stops injuries and accelerates healing, even able to take care of small cuts and scrapes near-instantly. Riku (at least in this story) isn’t a magic-user, relying instead on the Light and Darkness powers that he can control. Thus, he isn’t going to be casting Cure spells, but he still plainly recovers very quickly from injuries (you can see this even in canon), so that was the answer I came up with: he recovers when he rests.
> 
> I may as well take the time to set out how I see Riku’s power level: in truth, he’s not _terribly_ far above the other characters in individual respects. He’s not as fast as Ruby, not as graceful as Weiss, not as stealthy as Blake, not as tough as Yang, not as strong as Nora, not as agile as Ren, not as skilled as Pyrrha, and doesn’t have as much Aura as Jaune; certainly he is not, overall, a match for the teachers despite his good showing during the spar in Chapter 4. This applies even in his darkness-empowered state, although that does boost him in power. (I’ve tried to show this in his race with Ruby, or his fight with Goodwitch, for instance).  
>  Riku is more of an all-rounder, not least because he’s spent most of his adventures by himself without backup. Related to this, because he’s had no backup to rely on (except for the brief time that he was rolling with the King) he’s trained himself to never ever stop. Therefore, the metric by which he _does_ excel is  endurance. Riku can keep fighting long after everyone else is tired out and collapsed, and even when he does finally get tired, a short nap and he’s ready to go again.
> 
> On a similar note, I had someone ask me about Riku’s ‘enhanced senses’ and wonder why he’s so much like a Faunus. I want to correct this impression: Faunus have generally sharper senses than humans, to varying degrees based on their animalian species and traits. We learn in canon that most or all Faunus have better night vision than humans, and Blake’s feline ears have demonstrated that she can hear better than her human teammates. Sun’s tail presumably helps his balance, and is plainly very strong, as it can support his entire weight.  
> In this story, the enhancement of the average Faunus’ sense of smell is very subtle, and even many Faunus would never notice the difference if they suddenly lost the sensitivity (Blake, for her part has trained it, so she probably would). By contrast, Leo (the leopard Faunus OC, see below) has a leopard’s nose and whiskers as his animal trait rather than ears or a tail, so his sense of smell is correspondingly a great deal stronger.  
> Riku, on the other hand, has a very different set. His night-vision is strengthened from his time in the Realm of Darkness and the Voids between worlds. His sense of smell is only approximately as strong as an average Faunus (weaker than Blake’s trained nose) but he is _extremely_ sensitive to the ‘smell’ of Darkness (this is from canon, and it’s implied to be a sort of extra sense that he gained from his experience wielding darkness himself; he refers to it as ‘smell’ because he has no better way to describe it, though it’s more likely related to his ability to sense hearts). His hearing is no stronger than any other human, but he pays careful attention to his surroundings to be prepared for a potential ambush, again relict of his time spent without backup in the Dark Realm.
> 
> This is the morning of Team CFVY’s away mission, hence they’re getting up early to eat before they catch their transport.  
> The other team mentioned are an OC team called SBLE (pronounced “Sable”), and probably won’t figure into the plot except as occasional background characters for a while, yet. I’ll try to have some character sketches, at least, available before they actually have an impact on the story, but I’ve got them pretty well fleshed out. For reference, they are team leader Fi Sable (main color black), second-in-command Barrie Argent (silver and blue), Barrie’s partner Leo Tenné (brown), and Fi’s partner Gules Escutcheon (red). Leo is a [leopard] Faunus and the only male, and SBLE are actually alumni who stick around because Beacon is the best place to be assured of a steady supply of missions.  
> I have seen a “Team SBLE” mentioned in another story (can’t remember which) as background characters, but they never appeared on screen and all immediately died. Other than borrowing the convenient team designation, I invented these characters from whole cloth.


End file.
